Well, Santa visited the kids in the night last night, so this morning they are enjoying presents from Santa. This marks the end of Christmas at the Gacke's in 2007. Sometimes I wonder why we stretch it out soo much, but then the joy on my two kids faces reminds me why. Years ago, Tom and I started this tradition of doing our Christmas early or in most recent years later. It is just too much to bring the kids gifts back to Iowa where we spend both Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Plus, if you have ever seen our vehicle on the drive home from Iowa you would realize there was no room for anymore gifts. The kids get so much from our parents and grandparents we feel like ours would just be too much and not appreciated so, we wait a few days and open our gifts at home after Christmas. We had started the tradition on New Years Eve/New years day, but this year, Tom has to work tonight and I didn't want to feel rushed into opening presents and eating a nice dinner, so we went ahead and did it yesterday. Then Santa came last night-so we are done.
It was a great Christmas. For the first time in a long while, both my immediate family and Tom's immediate family were all present. My brother missed Christmas last year, but made the trip home from Germany this year to spend Christmas with us. Tom's brother has been in the military the last 4 years and has not been always able to be with us at Christmas, but he is out of the military and was present. It was great seeing everyone and spending time with them all.
Also over the season, Tom and I celebrated our 10th anniversary. It was wonderful. We had a nice romantic dinner and enjoyed a day to ourselves with no kids (sometimes we need to have a little refresher ourselves). Thanks to both sets of grandparents for allowing that to happen. No, we are not making it on our honeymoon this year, but we did splurge and purchase ourselves a new king size bed and a flat screen TV. So all in all it was a great 10 year anniversary.
I still have a few days off from school. Teacher's go back on Friday for a work day but no kids until next week. I really need to do some work around here. The last couple days have been running around finishing shopping for the kids and exchanging items that didn't fit, work, etc. Now, I need to organize toys, clothes, and get to grading papers i have put off. Grades are due by next Monday so I need to get that accomplished.
We hope you all had a wonderful christmas and best wishes as you begin the new year. Tom says quitting smoking is number one on his new years resolutions. I am going for eating healthy and exercising. We will let you know of our progress.
I will leave you all with some pictures from Christmas. Enjoy!
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