Holiday Recap--Settle in. It's a doozy.

**CLICK ON ANY PICTURE TO ENLARGE**

If you're in a hurry...you might want to come back and visit me later. I have been a slacker in blogland...so now there are so many pics I want to share that it's too many for one post. Oh, well. I'm sharing most of them anyway.

Above is our family pic on Christmas Eve just before we left for church. True to form, Trevor protested. At least he's half-way looking at the camera.

Animesh's folks came to spend a few days with us before Christmas. They were able to share in our Christmas morning festivities and then took off after that. We enjoyed having them here.

Christmas afternoon we headed to my parents' house for food and fun. Love the food. Love the traditions. Thanks to Mom, I've never, EVER prepared a holiday meal. I know, I know. Slacker again.

The day after Christmas we were on a plane...to Disney World in Orlando! Crowded beyond belief (turns out we were there at the BUSIEST week of the year) but still magical.



The evening we arrived we met up with some former San Antonians and dear friends for dinner at the new T-REX CAFE at Downtown Disney. Similar to Rainforest (they're owned by the same company), it was a downright dino-mite experience. Deven was in heaven.


We woke up for our first day of Disney adventures and hopped on the monorail...where Trevor entertained us with some pole dancing.



First stop? Breakfast with Mickey and friends. Always a fun character dining experience.



Highlights include (but are not limited to) meeting every single one of the Power Rangers....

Watching the dolphins at the beautiful aquarium inside Epcot....

Listening to the "Beatles" at Epcot....
"It's been a hard day's night...."

Enjoying all of the gorgeous holiday lights...

Seeing the all of the safari animals SO CLOSE to us on the
Kilamanjaro Safari ride at Animal Kingdom...

And, most of all, being able to hang out as a family.
For an extended period of time.
We were all a little slap-happy by the end of the trip.

This was at Rainforest Cafe at Animal Kingdom...the night before we left.

The silliness was contagious.

It was a bittersweet trip... the first time in 7 years we traveled
without diapers or a stroller or the need of a crib in our hotel room.
Our babies are growing up.

We flew home on the 31st, and the next day...NEW YEAR'S DAY...we were blessed with the best little get-together we could have asked for. Jeanne and her hubby, Catherine and her family, and Tecla and her family all joined our clan for beer, fajitas and entertainment--courtesy of our little ones. This is them preparing to show us their rock creation they worked so hard on. Later, there were Oscar-worthy dramatic performances. So fun.

Us girls got a little silly. But, what else is new?

Catherine's hubby, Kipper, played some tunes while we hung out on the patio in the most gorgeous weather ever. He actually made my guitar sound GOOD! The sing-along was classic.
"Wasted away again in Margaritaville...."


This weekend was laid back with gorgeous weather on Saturday so we broke out some new toys. Priya practiced her driving (thanks to Animesh's parents). She's actually quite good.

Daddy got his work-out helping the boys master Trevor's new pogo stick.
Deven laughed the entire time.

Today is cold and blah. Put away all the Christmas decorations with a touch of sadness. The house looks kind of bare. But, I have such lovely memories of yet another magical, love-filled, peaceful holiday to tuck into my heart and head.

Till next year...