Buon Natale!

It must be Italian! If you don't get that movie reference, then you must not have owned a television set, ever. Pity. Anyway, we had the best Christmas! Not that we don't love to spend time with our extended family, but they all ditched us this year, and that was just fine by Team Martinez. We had a nice, quiet homegrown Christmas, just the four of us. Actually, the Blomquists came over and watched Christmas Vacation with us last night, and it is always fun to visit with them. But, come this morning we were alone. I won't bore you with too many details; it was your typical un-stuff stockings, open presents, yadda yadda yadda. After the morning festivities we ate popcorn and watched movies all day. I got a really cool double jogging stroller, so we went for a spin around the neighborhood to try it out. The big hit gift though was the dollhouse I got for Maddie. I had set it all up the night before and put it under a big sheet. When we unveiled it, both girls made a break for it and played with it pretty much non-stop for several hours. What's so funny is that I bought it second hand on e-bay. I was pretty bummed because I didn't get to give Fi her big present yet, a ride on kiddie car. I opened up the box to put it together last night (so much for waiting until the last minute), and the front axles were missing. At least she's too young to know that she got a little jipped. Here are some sweet pics from our humble little Christmas.

The Dollhouse- All set up and ready to be marvelled at.

Before

Fi would not part with her bottle for much of the unwrapping.

"Get on with it, Fi. We've got lots of unwrapping to do!"

Maddie get an important International phone call from Aunt Rhonda, who is vacationing in Sweden.

After

12 hours later - still at the dollhouse, still a mess