Bringing up Allie

Christmas and New Years were a blast this year. Very busy, but very fun. December in general was a super busy month. With all the parties, company, and running around we had to do, we were all exhausted by the end.

Our friends Kevin and Beth were home from Tennessee for about three weeks in December. Kevin just deployed to Afghanistan for nine months so we tried to spend as much time with them and their kids as we could before he left. We went out to dinner a couple times, went skiing, played around in all the snow and just spent some really nice quality time with them.

Christmas went really well. Allie got a ton of stuff, as usual. We ate tons of food, got to see our families and we even got some gifts.

As for Allie Mae’s gifts from us she got the Fisher Price Servin’ Surprises table with most of the attachments, the Lady and the Tramp and Bambi Little People sets, and a ton of dress up stuff in her stocking. From my parents, she got the Fisher-Price Little People Disney Princess Klip Klop Stable with some extra horses, some new pots and pans, a Minnie Mouse table and chairs set, clothes, an adorable snowsuit, a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse music set, and a bunch more stuff. From Loren’s family she got a bin full of new art supplies, a new baby, some pjs and sweatshirts, and a really cute doll bed that Loren’s dad made out of barn wood.

She is such a spoiled little girl and I love it.  

The only thing that sucks about Christmas is, it always ends up being such a tiring day. We spend Christmas Eve night with my family for a party then around 5am Christmas morning my parents and sister come over to open presents with us and have breakfast. Then around 8am we pack up and drive out to Loren's parents house (an hour away) for presents and brunch. After his parents we leave, drive another hour back home and head over to my parents for dinner. It's absolutely exhausting. While I love spending time with family, I think next year we're going to have to make sure we have some downtime to enjoy with Allie. 

After Christmas we moved on to New Years. We had a massive snow storm so Loren and I decided ahead of time that we weren't going to be out late. We had the night to ourselves so we decided to go out to dinner and see a movie. We saw American Hustle and it was really good, actually better than I thought it was going to be.

After the movie, Loren and I came home, watched a couple more movies on Netflix, drank a whole bottle of wine and it was nighty night for us. It was a great way to end the year 2013.