This is Alyssa for "Where did the Christmas tree go?" And that's what I'm wondering myself, "Where did the holidays go?". The past few weeks have been a whirlwind, but they have been so much fun, filled with family, friends, laughter, and love.We started our Christmas celebration on December 17. I finished grading the night before, then spent the day readying the house for my parents' arrival, doing some Christmas shopping, taking Lauren to her 6 month check up, and then it was off to our first Christmas party. Our day care provider had a party for all of her "rentals" (that's what she calls the kids) and their families. It was so much fun to meet the other parents and see the kids playing together. Plus all the kiddos got to open presents - one to take home and a whole bunch of new toys for the day care. Kids get so excited over Christmas and this was a great way for us to start our season of celebrating.
When we got home, Nana and PapPap were waiting for us. We celebrated Christmas that weekend with them and Santa even made a special trip to our house while they were here since he knew we weren't going to be here on Christmas morning.
Alyssa put out "tookies" and "nilk" for him and was so excited in the morning to see all the presents. She started opening right away. She definitely got overwhelmed, we had to take two different breaks - one for breakfast and one to play. He favorite gift from Nana and PapPap was a new bike and her favorite gifts from Santa were a wooden "choo choo train" set and a crib/high chair for baby. Lauren enjoyed watching all the commotion, but mostly she just wanted to chew on all the wrapping paper.
Two days later, we headed off to the airport to head to Minnesota. We had such a wonderful visit with family and friends there. We enjoyed spending a lot of time with Grandma and Papa, Auntie "Tazy" and Aunt "Yaa". We also enjoyed hanging out with lots of friends - both with the girls and without the girls. 
Some of the highlights of the trip include:- taking Alyssa to Christmas Eve mass. She kept asking "Baby Je do?" (Where's Baby Jesus?) throughout Mass because we had told her that it was his birthday. Then later that night when we put her down to sleep, I asked her if she wanted to sing songs and she sang "Appy Biday to Je" (Happy Birthday to Jesus). Too cute!
- Lauren started squirming around and moving in circles on her tummy. She even started pushing up on her knees and rocking.
- Alyssa getting a pony from Grandma and Grandpa. His name is Lucky and she likes to stick her finger in his mouth and say "Owee" plus bounce on him and sing with him "Clippity Clop Clippity Clop".
- Alyssa telling Grandpa to "Get up Old Man" because he was napping in bed when he wasn't feeling well.
- Alyssa and Aaron went sledding down the big hill by Grandma and Grandpa's house. She enjoyed this much more than last year and even said "Weee!".
- Alyssa enjoyed watching and feeding the turkeys in the yard.
We left Minnesota the evening of December 29. Our plane out of Minneapolis was delayed and we missed our connection home to Grand Rapids. So we had to spend the night and Milwaukee, this meant the girls' first night in a hotel. Unfortunately they both got their second winds despite the fact that we didn't get there until 10:30 or 11:00. Alyssa was being silly and running and jumping towards Lauren, and Lauren would just laugh at her. There is absolutely nothing that Aaron and I love more than watching the two of them laugh together.
So because of the overnight stay in Milwaukee, we didn't get back into our house until around 1:30 in the afternoon and Uncle Wally, Aunt Dena, and Scooter arrived at 3:45.
These two gave us the greatest surprise of the season by announcing that they are expecting a baby next June, so Alyssa and Lauren will get to be cousins. We were so excited to be able to celebrate with them and Alyssa knows that there's a baby in Dena's tummy.
We enjoyed yet another Christmas, celebrating it on New Year's Eve. Alyssa loved her Handy Manny toolbox, she keeps saying "Anny Manny" and Lauren really enjoys her blocks. New Year's Day morning was pretty nice, so we all enjoyed a stroll around the neighborhood - Alyssa on her bike and Lauren in the stroller.
After having to take the first work day of the year off as a sick day (we had all been up the night before with some sort of stomach bug), we're all getting back into our routine. But it's funny how life has changed for us over the past two weeks - Lauren had a third tooth poke through and she's now a little mobile. She's not full out crawling but she's squirming on her tummy, got a little bit of an army crawl, and she's got a weird scoot ... she lifts up on to her knees then falls forward on her chest, inching forward kind of like an inch worm. Alyssa doesn't necessarily like this new phase as Lauren is getting ahold of more of Alyssa's toys, but we're sure she'll grow to love it once they're chasing after each other. Just tonight, Alyssa was sitting with me, cheering Lauren on - she was saying "Come here Lolo, come here." Plus Alyssa has decided to potty train. She's doing an awesome job at home, peeing and pooping often when we ask her if she has to go plus she's going some on her own. She's working on going at day care, but I think with all the fun of playing with the other kids, she gets distracted. But she's doing great with it!
We're all looking forward to what 2011 holds for us and we wish you all the best in this new year. I'll leave you with one final funny Alyssa anecdote - tonight we were watching "Angelina Ballerina" and the characters were dancing, shaking their butts. I asked Alyssa if she wanted to shake her booty. She took off and I thought she was headed toward the bathroom, but instead she came back with her boots on, saying "Shake booty mommy, shake booty!" Got to love her :)
