My Life with Dogs: Ah The Holidays

Every year the build up to the holidays is as much as a process as the actual celebration itself. What with all of the christmas programs, present purchasing, and in our case this year, new car shopping we've just been running around in circles it seems...
Indulge me while I catch you all up on the goings on at the Swanny household in the past week or so.

We celebrated Christmas with my Dad, my stepmom and my sister and her family the Friday before Christmas. When you have 4 sets of grandparents, Christmas really becomes a month-long affair. Throw in a Christmas-time birthday and you've got yourself a regular circus.

We were so glad that this year my sister and her family were able to join us from Idaho for a week. Here are our 2 (Peanut age 4 minus 4 days) and Swanny Jr. (nearly 7 months) and her kiddos, J-Bug (age 6 1/2), Missy (age 4), and Tank (age 18 months). What a fun time the cousins had playing together! The noise was spectacular, but as my dad said, he couldn't think of a better noise to have in the house!

After Christmas celebration at Grandpas, it was hurry home to be to dance class in time....that's right, parent day at dance class. You may have already seen Peanut's dance video debut on her birthday post, here is another shot of her showing her moves off to us.

She twirled, boogied, carwheeled, skipped and even did the splits for us. Glad to know that monthly check I write to the dance studio is paying off!

The next day, Peanut co-starred in her very first Christmas play. The Sunday School kids at Church put together a wonderful play that helped spread the message about what Christmas is REALLY all about. Peanut sang Away in the Manger and Joy to the World at the top of her lungs. In between she had a few lines and got to sit and look cute.

or lay down and appear bored....

We left church that day and headed home to prepare to welcome the birthday party guests. Despite the frigid temperatures and near blizzard conditions, we had a decent turnout for the celebration. We were sad that a few guests were unable to make it due to the bad weather, but we were able to visit and celebrate with them later in the week.

This is pretty much what Peanut looked like all week: wearing her t-shirt that proudly proclaims the age she has achieved and unwrapping some gift or another. While I'm certain this year she is able to tell the difference between her birthday and christmas, she was unable to specify a favorite birthday gift to the doctor yesterday at her well-visit...they've all run together in her mind, I'm sure.

The kids both enjoyed Christmas. Peanut was happiest about her new Light Saber and her Ponyville Amusement Park. When she saw Santa had left it for her she proclaimed that it was "what I've been wanting my whole life." Swanny Jr was as I predicted just as content with the boxes and wrapping paper as he was with the gifts themselves.

Leia was just exhausted....she's still not feeling all that well....poor thing.

We celebrated Christmas over the course of the week with all of the grandparents and were so glad to get to see them all. Too bad Grammy Maru had the fluand was out of commission when we were in the Q.C over the weekend...thankfully she had her witts enough about her to fish my car keys out of the trash after $40 to a locksmith to open my car only to find they were not in there and nearly an hour of frantic searching. Yeah, we'll be talking about that one for a while.

In other randomness, Swanny Jr. is now the proud eater of finger foods. Crackers, veggie puffs, bread, and in this picture, Biter Biscuits. YUM. He now becomes frantic if he is within spitting distance of food someone else is eating and realizes he has none of his own...