New Toys, New Year and New Nephew

As I sat down to finally write something new on this blog I had titled it "New Toys, New Year New Baby." Thankfully I realized before posting that that might be a bit misleading so I changed the final word.

I am thrilled to have a new nephew - Caleb William Koerber was born last night January 3rd to Mike and Sharon Koerber, weighing in at 8lbs even and 19 inches long. I still can't believe my little brother is a dad! Sharon went into labor two weeks early. Did I mention he was 8lbs??? Sharon and baby are doing great and I'm sure she is thankful that she didn't go another two weeks! If you want to see some pictures of the little one and offer your congrats to the new parents, click HERE or on Boston Koerbers on my blogroll.

I've been enjoying reading all your Christmas updates. So much so that I really haven't been motivated to add one of my own. But then New Year's came along and the resolutions were going up and I figured I probably need to get some Christmas highlights up before I touch on my goals/resolutions for the New Years. At the rate I'm going, you'll see those in February.

We enjoyed a week of visiting with both our families and now are home in our own beds. As nice as it is to have less responsibilities and more people around to hang out with and constant playmates for your kids, nothing can top sleeping in your own bed. And that's before we get our 3 inch memory foam topper!

Catherine and Ella unloaded all their toys in the family room and it's been a disaster ever since. We are slowly putting toys away and moving things to their new spots. All the Christmas decorations are put away - it was time for, as Catherine said "bye bye Christmas".

Overall it was a really fun Christmas. Last year Ella was able to totally understand Christmas and know it was coming but this year the excitement reached a high as we glued cotton puffs to Santa's beard and added ornaments to our advent tree. We ended up going to Clearfield a day early to have an extra day with Mike and Sharon, who made a late decision to make the trip, but had to head home the day after Christmas. The kids got to open their gifts from us and Santa in Clearfield. The difference between the two of them was hilarious. Ella would rip open a gift and exclaim over it and squeal and love it and seconds later want to move on to the next one. Catherine would rip open a gift and exclaim over it and squeal and love it and bring it over to her PapPap and be ready to play for the day.

The week after Christmas was filled with more presents and celebrations and time with cousins as we moved from the Koerber Christmas in PA to the deMontaigne Christmas in MD. After four years of holding out we have finally succumbed to the portable DVD player. It's a wonderful thing and I am going to suggest we drive to Boston to visit the new baby -that's how happy it made me to not have to be climbing over the seats for cups and toys.

Some of the favorite gifts for the girls include an easel from Ikea with lots of craft supplies to go with it, a digital camera for Ella (Catherine loves it as well, but refused to let anyone show her how to work it and she takes picture after picture of nothiness), Dora's magical castle and lots of new food for the play kitchen for Catherine and a doll house for Ella. Lots of wonderful toys with little pieces which result in me crawling around the ground trying to find all those wonderful little pieces. I can't even blame the grandparents - I'm the one who bought the tiniest of tiny toys. Because I am just dying to work on my fine motor skills.

We came home on New Year's Eve and like the party animals we vegged on the couch all night and watched movies. I happened to glance at the clock at 11:59 so we did see the last 10 seconds of 2007. And then put our movie back on.

I still feel a bit behind - getting laundry caught up, getting the house in order, getting into a workout routine - all things that will put us back to normal and out of vacation-lazy mode.

But, I'm giving it one more night and I'm heading for the couch as soon as I publish this....