Twas the Night Before Christmas.....

I'm only a week and a half behind.....

We celebrated Christmas Eve with our dear friends (AKA Louisiana Gang) at the DeFuscos. We decided not to go home to Cut Off for Christmas because the traffic we encountered for Thanksgiving (11 hours worth!) was horrific. We were very sad not to see our families, but we had a lovely time with our Georgia family.

There was lots of

GREAT FOOD

GREAT CONVERSATION

AND GREAT FUN HAD BY ALL!

Kissing in the Sticks!

Awwwwww, so sweet.

Our Little Family. My world.

My Punkadoodle. She looked like a Wild Child without her headband. We got about 3 inches cut off today! The Ladies

(My support system)

The Little Ladies. That's Maren trying to run away!

The "Men". My husband looks like he's trying to be a gangsta.

The Little Men. This was a miraculous feat....getting them all to stay still for this shot.

The Lovely, Mr. and Mrs. Johnson

This was a funny moment. Mike leaned over the fire pit to grab something and he came up with soot ALL over his face. The picture doesn't do it justice!

Mama Heidi to the Rescue!

The Donegan and Lipani Family

The DeFusco Family

Me and Em

Me and Catrina

Gracie reading a book to Will. This is a pretty rare moment as well.

Mason is TOO COOL FOR SCHOOL!

But apparently, Michael is not TOO COOL for the tunnel!

SANTA! It's Me Buddy!
(ELF reference)

Gracie's only visit with Santa this year. She was very excited!

And he was VERY good to her! Let's hear it for The Littlest Pet Shop!

Poor Baby. This breaks my heart :(

Oh No, not another one.

I think this is the SWEETEST picture. She put that Mr. Potato together in no time!

I swear she is a PORCELIN DOLL!

We can't forget Mr. Mason. You would think he is my kid. This blog is definitely not lacking pictures of this little guy. I can't help myself. He is just so darn adorable. And very photogenic I might add."PARTAY, Alex. Whatta ya say we skip this joint?"

"Oh, I forgot. Santa's coming tonight. Let's plan on next weekend. A'ight"

"All that concentrating has made me hungry. What about that King Cake I saw in the kitchen?"

"That's what I'm talking about!"

"This is DELISH! You hit a good lick Uncle Michael."

William giving his MeMe some love.

"IIIII. Wanna Rock and Roll All Night. And Party Every Day" I'm sorry I can't help but think of Gene Simmons when I see this picture.

Sugar Rush 2008

The Louisiana Gang gathered for the Johnson's annual Cookie Exchange the weekend before Christmas. I've dubbed it "Sugar Rush 2008!" There were so many scrumptious cookies to choose from that I had to try them all. I will be going back to Weight Watchers after the 1st of the year! No more sugar for me. I also swore I wouldn't buy any more fridge packs of Cherry Coke last week.......but I had a moment of weakness. I figured I had another week to indulge myself. God that will be sooooo hard.

We had so much fun at the party! Thank you Heidi and Brian for hosting another wonderful evening..

Our wonderful hosts, Heidi and Brian

Me and my honey. There's a funny story about that sweater....but i won't divulge. Thanks for the save Heidi!

Mel and Mike

Emily and Michael

Brian and Catrina We also played a game of Dirty Santa. Here Mel is shaking up the gifts to try and nab the best one!

Still trying.

Umm, what is that?

Maren is obsessed with her Belly Button. She also loves to stick out her tongue. It is too funny!

Mason figured he would try it out too.

Meanwhile, the children entertained themselves upstairs.

GERONIMO!!!!!!

Show Off Day!

This year's dance show off was much more successful than last year's! Last year we weren't there five minutes before Gracie clung to us for dear life, leaving us to quickly exit for fear of a major meltdown. Thanks to the timing of this performance being so close to the arrival of Santa Clause, we had some leverage! We were so proud of her. She did SUPERB! Of course she got a little annoyed with us taking a gazillion pictures of her, so that was our cue to put the camera down. This is her 3rd year of dance and she is really catching on. I hope her interest in it lasts. We're keeping our fingers crossed. After all, she refuses to play soccer or any other sport for that matter because she doesn't "Like to get too Sweaty". Definitely a girly girl.

This was the last picture we took. Just by the look on her face, we knew it was time to stop!