Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, everyone! We are still in Georgia today and leaving early tomorrow morning to drive back to VA with the girls and the boys (dog boys, that is). Hopefully we will fit everything back in our rented minivan. We have all been having a great time this week. The girls have enjoyed being the center of attention. Especially Sophie. There's something about family gatherings that brings out the best in her.

We arrived Saturday afternoon and went out to dinner with my parents to my favorite restaurant in Forsyth - El Tejado. It took the girls a while to get settled in that night, and we did a little more traveling on Sunday, but I think after that they were right at home. Sunday we went to see Grandma Ilona in Atlanta. She's in Hungary right now with her mother - left on Monday. Peter's grandmother is not doing so well and is stubborn about doctors. We hope that his mom can get something resolved before she comes back home.

Monday night we went to Mema and Papa's house for dinner. Mema made enough to feed an army as usual and it was all delicious (also as usual). Mary ate until she couldn't hold herself up anymore. Tuesday we met Aunt Janis and our cousin Gini for lunch in Macon. That's my mom's side of the family - they had a get together on Sunday but we weren't able to make it down. Then, last night we had family over for Christmas Eve dinner, my dad's sister Tricia and her family, Russ and Mandy, Mema and Papa. I finally got the camera out and tried to take a few pictures. I've posted the only ones that came out decent. Not because of the subjects - but I took a few before I realized there was something on the camera lens. And also I'm probably the world's worst photographer, so I have a lot of blurry stuff.

Mary and Mom

Mandy and Russ

Sophie and Kadie

Sophie and her teddy bear - she was up way past bedtime!

Christmas Card Outtakes 2008

It's been a while since the last post. We have been busy. Especially Sophie and Mary. They are walking, well sometimes running (Sophie). Mary is not walking quite as much as Sophie but she gets where she's going pretty fast, whatever the mode. We're all having fun.

About the pictures: We had a Christmas picture made yesterday of our family with the girls wearing these fancy dresses given to them by Grandma Ilona. It won't be ready until the 18th though, so I went ahead and took some pictures of the girls at home that afternoon while they still had their dresses on.

I don't think we have a winner for the Christmas card. I'll try again later. There's still 16 days to get around to it, right? Sophie was ready to ham it up, but Mary (probably still a bit groggy from nap time) was very focused on the camera. And this ultimately resulted in a very upset Mary when she could not have the camera. It's just too bad she's so cute when she's angry. Don't worry, she's fine.

Something is about to happen.

Mary goes for the camera/Sophie still being cute

Hey, that's a cool camera, Mom - what's up with Mary?

End of session.

We've grown a lot this year!

Our 2007 Christmas card picture!