Christmas with the Duffy's

I know everyone is so over Christmas right now and I debated not even posting this, but this blog has become more of a journal/scrapbook for me than anything and I want to remember it.  And hey, I actually got this posted six days earlier than I did last year.

We got to enjoy a whole week in Nebraska relaxing and spending time with family.  It was GREAT.  I think it's been hard to want to write about such a relaxing time now that I've been working 10-hour days.

We arrived Saturday night before Christmas just as Mom and Dad were returning from their anniversary date to the symphony in Omaha.  It was their 34th anniversary!  I made them take a picture since they looked so nice.

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful.  We went to Lincoln one day to Kim & Justin's, but other than that, we spent most of the time at the house.  Mostly because of this...

I was kind of glad though because it brought Kim's family to stay with us before Christmas day.  They knew the weather was supposed to be bad so they went ahead and came before Christmas.

Justin brought Guitar Hero to the house and we spent a lot of time playing Rock Band.  The boys even took a midnight trip to Wal-mart one night because they had mastered all the songs and wanted to buy some more.

Kim, Justin, & Trevor rocking out (especially Trevor!)

Rachel, Ryan, & Caroline were also able to spend the whole week.  We love getting to see them...it's not nearly enough!

Caroline loved this decorative rocking horse of Grandma's.

Caroline gave Grandma this polar bear ornament.  It was to remind her of their special day at the zoo.

On Christmas Eve, Grandpa missed breakfast because he was out snow blowing.  When he came back in Victoria was ready to go play in the snow with Grandpa!  He had to eat standing up.

   Later that day, Grandpa & Victoria kept checking NORAD's website to see where Santa was traveling on Christmas Eve on the other side of the world.

It was so fun to have Victoria there to be very excited for Santa's arrival.  Here she is with her cookies, mints, and milk for Santa and carrots for his reindeer.

Kim had bought the girls some reindeer antlers from the Target $1 bin, so we got some Christmas Eve pictures of the girls with them.  Here's a video of the adults trying to get the kids excited to take a picture:

Then the adults also decided to have a little fun with the antlers!  Who knew you can have so much fun for $3?(I'm trying out using collages (thanks Gladys!) to get ALL of my pictures that I want to into a post without it being super long.  Hopefully you can still click on the picture to make it bigger to be able to see it if you want.  What do you think, do you like them?  Collages or no collages?!)

I also just found this next video that Ryan took that cracks me up every time!  This pretty much represents the adventure we had all week with these girls:  Caroline watching in amazement, Alexandra being busy, and Victoria saying something crazy!

You know Dasher & Dancer & Prancer &.....Sheesha!? :)

Christmas morning opening presents! 

Christmas dinner with Granny & Paul and Aunt Kathy & Linda.

Victoria sat at the kids table....by herself!!  She really wanted to.  I promise. :)

Trevor and Linda continuing their tradition of doing the dishes and chatting after holiday dinners.  They both enjoy that time!

On Christmas night, they decided to put the girls in their Christmas dresses to try to get some nice pictures.  THIS is what happened.  Ha!

They also got to open up a few more presents.  The girls sure were spoiled!

What a great time!  The next week was wonderful too as I only had to work one day that week before New Year's.  Now it's back to reality though...