Where to start?

I know I've already established the fact that I have been a slacker lately, but I am grossly overdue on a few key posts:

Our New York trip

Christmas

Our Anniversary

So, which one should I start with? I know you're all dying to hear everything we ate and saw, the pictures we took, and exactly how many times we breathed in New York, but how about a post about Christmas since it currently seems to be the hot topic? Good? Good. (Although it's not like you really have a choice, but I probably shouldn't point that out.)

CHRISTMAS

. . . was great. I found a fantastic train track set (think Thomas the Tank Engine but without the table) on Craigslist. It came complete with several engines and many (train)cars, little trees, road signs, houses, animals and people to build a little village with. Oh, and lots of bridges. Those are a must. It was a last-minute decision to get this and give it to Everett, but I am glad we did. (Does it count as "going green" when you are buying used items?)

I think Joel was, too. He kept saying "This is awesome, Elise" the entire time we were setting it up Christmas Eve night.

Here he is, proud of his handiwork. For the record, I helped too. And so did my brother. (Mack, are you happy now?) Somehow the picture makes the whole system look smaller than it really was. . .

After Everett saw the train track he didn't really want to open anything else for a while, which is saying something because since we've been getting a lot of packages lately he has really learned to love opening presents.

And. . .

This is Everett with a dual spiral racing track toy for his cars. You can use a lever mechanism to tip both cars onto the track at the same time (complete with sound effects!) or do it manually. This toy, from my parents, was also a huge hit. Good job, you two!

We didn't really get Ashley anything. Maybe this means we are miserly old (young?) scrooges, but since she is too young to really enjoy it we didn't worry about her. We'll get things for her as she needs them, and she is all set for toys.

Let's see, what else? Well, I was pretty proud of our Christmas stockings. I worked long and hard on them, which is something I've been meaning to do since just after our marriage when Joel asked me to make our family stockings. It took me a while to come up with the design concept and find the materials to put them together, but I think they turned out pretty well. I just hope Joel was happy with them. Here's a picture of how they looked:

Pretty neat, huh? I was going for something original. Do you think I was successful?

Ok, ok. Just kidding.

Oh, well, actually I mean I'm kidding about making them. We did use plastic grocery bags (except for Everett, who got a fabric bag--but not stocking-shaped).
Oh, stop. We still had Christmas! And it wasn't because I wanted to be unique, it was because apparently I forgot to put our stockings in the car on the way up to my parent's house, and making an hour round trip to retrieve stockings that no one would really miss didn't sound appealing to me. Oh, stop. I'll get it right next year!

Joel and I got each other our New York trip. That was present enough to last me for a long time. I also told him that I wanted a love letter, and I got it! It's a little difficult sometimes to get these accounting/engineer type people to be mushy, so even though the (long) first paragraph of the letter was talking about how he's writing this letter for me but that he didn't really know why because he sees me and talks to me every day, and that he didn't really have anything else to say, he started to get into it after a while. I'm thinking of making this a tradition. . .reading love letters to each other Christmas Eve night seems like a neat thing to do (that is, unless we are too wiped out from setting up all the kids' toys in a few years).

It was a great Christmas. I enjoyed every minute of it and I enjoyed making some of the presents I gave away. It is fun that we are starting to get into the stage where we set up the Santa toys on Christmas Eve, but I can only say that because we only had to do one this year. We'll see if I change my tune anytime soon.

And, although this post was much too long, I will still have to post about New York and our anniversary. Don't bite all your fingernails off in anticipation, now!