Merry New Years Christmas

For the last couple of years now my side of the family has delayed Christmas celebration and gift opening until New Years’ Day. It started back when my sister couldn’t make it to Kansas City over Christmas, but we kept the tradition going because there are so many benefits to a delayed Christmas celebration. First of all, Rollie’s side of the family can have both Christmas Day and a few days on either side (depending on his family’s schedule) without us having to plan my family's Christmas around that. It also gives us the added benefit of spreading out the holiday season (we all keep our decorations up until New Years anyway), and a few extra days of shopping (holiday clearance!) and shipping (no expedited shipping costs required!) and wrapping.

My parents, sister, and Aunt Pat all were there, plus Rollie and Hudson, of course. The best gift of the night had to be the basket of plush vegetables from Ikea that my sister got for Hudson. This little basket of tiny veggies is adorable and just the right size for his little hands. My sister is determined to turn him into a vegetarian! And he also got a gorgeous lamb chair from Pottery Barn Kids from my parents.

New Meaning for "Baby Carrots"

I had fun shopping for my mom and sister this year. They each got personalized stationary (perfect for my sister since she’s moving to Germany in a few weeks and my mom who keeps in touch with her friends from Lincoln), cashmere slippers, Kate Spade bags, and sock monkey wine bottle covers! Our whole family has a thing for sock monkeys. My aunt Pat had to have one of those too (she’s the sock monkey photographer and book author), plus a new computer bag for her brand new Mac laptop. The most fun gifts to give were to my dad though. We had him open the first season of Modern Family and the surprise gift: an iPad and case! We were so jealous giving that up, but I know they are going to get a ton of use out of it. Especially on those cold, snowy babysitting days where they are stuck indoors all day long. We were spoiled by our family too – Rollie got a Nike/iPod sensor to track his running routes and pace and a golf ball monogramming system (I got one too!) and I got a beautiful sweater coat, cardigan/top set, cookbook, plus we both got tons of stocking stuffers. Molly was thrilled with her gift: a Snuggie!

Puggy Snuggie