A Christmas Story - Nuetzel Style!

We are finally back from our Christmas vacation, and we are tired! Our trip started out at the Rondot's in Lima...traditional last minute gift buying in the town were all the major shopping occurs at the local super Walmart, so if you didn't like your deer whistles or cookbook...move to a bigger town! With shopping finalized and all the presents wrapped and under the tree, time to move onto our traditional family Christmas Eve festivities. Rushing to get to church in time to find seating for 25 (good thing Aunt Andrea is always on top of this) followed by a good stomach stuffing dinner at the China Gate Restaurant, and then home to open presents, and more food...of course Annie, who hasn't voluntarily eaten in 2 months, didn't really eat anything that day either. Presents were opened so fast by the 4 kiddos that I didn't really catch what Annie got so if you are missing any gifts, they probably ended up in Colorado. Almost every gift Annie opened was accompanied by her oohs and ahhs! Quite amusing! She got great gifts from her Aunt and Uncles and especially loved the baby doll with dresses especially made by Nana and the matching crib too. The next morning, we headed off to Wooster and spent time with Grandma and Grandpa Nuetzel and the Aunts and Uncles there. One highlight was the trip to a local house that had an 80 foot porch completely filled with christmas decorations, including the ones that were in Higbee's window display in the " A Christmas Story" movie. Annie had had a great time playing with her cousins in Lima, and Wooster was fun too, although a bit more full of some close calls while playing with her bigger cousin Jonah...by the end of vacation she started to lay on the ground like a slug when Jonah came around....it was her only defense. New Years Eve, we headed back to Denver and got home just in time to go straight to bed and sleep through the New Year, it was a long day of traveling and neither I nor Annie could keep our eyes open past 11. Tim, on the other hand spent the midnight hour shoveling the driveway...