Christmas Break Recap (Warning: Picture Overload)

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a fun New Year! We sure did!! We just got back from a two week vacation to Indiana. I have so much to post! We had a great time visiting with family and playing with cousins and old friends, making gingerbread houses, bowling, karaoke, eating lots of yummy food, and of course, the PRESENTS!! The girls were so spoiled by their aunts and uncles. Here is a cute picture of Charlotte at Grandma Ison's house after church. She loves this little rocking chair and bears. And, of course, another cute Christmas dress. At Grandma Asay's we acted out the First Christmas. Cousin Ty as Joseph and Brooke as Mary. Brooke took her job as the mother of Jesus very seriously. She held that baby doll very tightly. Grandma got the doll at the dollar store and Charlotte kept calling it "Baby Jesus" the rest of the time. Grandma was going to let us take it home, but Charlotte said, "no, it stay here". It was cute.We spent Christmas Eve at Aunt Rachel's house. She had all the fixings to make gingerbread houses. It was so fun!! I have never made one and had wanted to do it but didn't have time before we left. So I was glad they got the chance to do it at Aunt Rachel's. We will have to make it a yearly tradition. Charlotte enjoyed sampling the candy.
A picture of the girls and George. They sure do love this dog. After they were tired of gingerbread houses, they wanted to play with George. George has been in the Cazee family longer than I've been in the Cazee family. He's getting to be kinda old and it's kinda sad. They always want him to sit on his lap.


Christmas morning at Grandma Asay's house.

All Brooke wanted from Santa was a barbie and barbie clothes. Santa can do that. Santa brought some for Charlotte too so we wouldn't have fights over them. Good thinking Santa.

Fun with cousins Spenser, Cade, and Ty in our new Christmas duds.

After Christmas, we headed downtown to see some of the sights. We ate lunch at the Spaghetti Factory. Here we are on the train.

Did you know that Indianapolis has the largest Christmas tree in the world? But, it's not a real tree. Brooke went to the lighting of it at Thanksgiving with Aunt Jennifer. Me, Brooke, and Charlotte are in the middle of the picture, if you can find us. The tree surrounds the Soldier and Sailor's Monument which is also called Monument Circle. You can take an elevator up in it to see the sights from up above, but we decided not to do that. I lived in Indiana most of my life, and I don't think I have ever been up in it. There is also a Civil War museum in the basement of this Monument. We didn't spend too much time in it because it wasn't very exciting for the kids. Brooke did take our picture in this cut-out.



You can take a horse and carriage ride around downtown if you want to pay a pretty penny. Brooke decided she would just have her picture taken in it. By the way, it was actually a very warm day, around 65 degrees. We did have a sweatshirt for Brooke, but she chose not to wear it. Here is where all of Indiana's money has gone: the great and spacious new stadium for the Colts. They tore down the old stadium the weekend before we were there.



We had dinner at Arni's one night with some extended family. Here is a cute picture by the fireplace with their cousins, Regan and Brett. They had so much fun playing with them. They painted their nails, watched movies, read together, horsed around, and had lots of fun.

One night we went bowling with the Bland Clan (thanks for inviting us Gwen!). We had lots of fun, but I always forget how bad I am. The first game I did terrible, I scored about 56, I think. I made a comeback in the second game and even beat Nathan's score, which is a first. There's a glare on the screen, but I think I ended up with 112?. I'm Nature Girl and Nathan is Retired. I didn't come up with the names. That was all Ryan. Afterward, some of us went back to the Bland house to do some karaoke. It was lots of fun but I didn't take any pictures. I guess I was just to into it.

We have finally come to New Year's Eve. We spent the evening with our good friends, the Barkers. The girls just had to play dress up. They are so cute.

They had karaoke too! But the kid version. This is Olivia singing a Jonas Brother's song. Brooke sang "Best of Both Worlds" by Hannah Montana, of course! I didn't get a picture of her though! I did get one of Nathan singing.
Our kids stayed up until midnight, but only 1 out of 3 Barker kids made it. Thank goodness my kids will sleep in if they're up late. They slept until after 10 this morning! But we're home now, and we need to get back on schedule because Brooke starts school on Monday morning! She hasn't been up before 9 a.m. the whole break! Anyway, Happy New Year!