Everything Eatherton: Happy 2012!

It's my "resolution" (even though I don't make new year resolutions) to be a better online family historian (aka, blogger). I do great with taking photos, but I never seem to share them, or talk about all the fun things we do on here. So this year, I'm going to *try* and post at least once a week, even if we don't do anything wild and crazy. I know it's already Jan 5th, but since it's still the first week of the new year, I figure I'm not yet in violation of said "resolution".

A lot happened in Dec. Instead of breaking it down play-by-play, I'll just say that Brady really got into the holidays this year (presents) and could not stop talking about it (presents)! Joking aside, it was wonderful to see him get into all aspects of Christmas (minus the actual, true meaning... we tried to explain, I promise...)-- from Elf on a Shelf to the Christmas carols (he's STILL singing "Jingle Bells"), making Christmas cookies to "fancy" lights, hanging ornaments and making crafts, the endless holiday cartoons on TV to actually sitting on Santa's lap without shedding a tear, this kid got into everything. It's true what they say about the holidays coming alive again through your children's eyes. What a great time we had this year!!

Christmas was spent in Chicago with my family on Christmas Eve and Matt's family on Christmas day. It's nice that our families are close enough that we can do that, but I'm definitely looking forward to the day that we're settled in a home in Chicago and we can host the holidays at our house. No more driving!!! We loved spending time with our niece Aubrey and we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of our new niece in Feb. We also got to meet a new addition to my family, "baby Brody" (my cousin Leah's little boy who was only 11 days old on Christmas). Bubby and Papa Joe now have 2 great grandchildren!

We celebrated Brady's 3rd birthday on Dec. 26. We kept things low key this year, with the plan of throwing him a "half birthday" party this summer with all his buddies in CA. Every kid deserves to have a special time set aside for their birthday, and no matter how we try, it's hard to avoid the holiday spill-over effect. We took the immediate family out for pizza and Brady got showered with love and attention, which is what really matters.

Our holiday trip to Chicago was a little shorter than usual, so we didn't get to see as many people as we would have liked to this time, but hope to make up for that this summer. We're finally settling back into "life" and I'm happy to report that the Christmas tree has finally come down. Phew!

I took hundreds of photos in Dec., so instead of trying to post a collage here, I'm just attaching links to our Picasa account. Check them out when you get a chance!