Another Ghost of Christmas Past...

...or a few Christmas cards from our past!

I don't have electronic copies of 2004-2008, so we'll just go from there!  Once again, love seeing how Lainey has changed but still has that sweet little face!

2009

2010

2011

2012

The Ghost of Christmas Past...

...or the Santa pictures of our past!


Apparently we did not take Lainey to see Santa for her first Christmas, so they start in 2008.  I've loved looking at them all together now and seeing how Lainey has changed from year to year!

2008

2009

2010 (Best. Santa. EVER.)

2011

2012 (seriously do not know what we will do when this guy retires!)

Merry Christmas!

Fun Night

We had a crazy busy and fun weekend!  Both mine and Jovan's holiday parties were scheduled this past weekend.  My sister-in-law graciously agreed to come spend the weekend with us to watch the girls so we could enjoy two nights to ourselves. 

Friday night was my Christmas party.  I am definitely blessed to LOVE the people I teach with.  They are seriously some of the most fun people I know.  We spent the night eating, laughing, and playing Just Dance on the Wii.  Our holiday party is always "Holiday Apparel" themed, and it is always fun to see what people wear.  We can't really call it "ugly sweater" because we're in the teaching profession which I'm pretty sure is where those ugly sweaters originated and still live...don't want to offend anyone!  My holiday apparel this year was yoga pants and a hoodie.  We all decided at Book Club the night before that we would wear yoga pants, and it was one of the best decisions we've made all year. :)  We had a great low-key evening.

Saturday night was Jovan's work party.  His was a little more high maintanance!  The invitation (yes--invitation) that was mailed to us had semi-formal listed as the attire.  Everyone's definition of "semi-formal" is different, so I stressed out a little bit about that.  I finally decided I would just go with something in my closet and call it a day.  We got all gussied up and headed to some place here where a lot of wedding receptions are held.  Jovan's party was a little lot different than my work one, but it was nice to get all dressed up for a night.  We had a lovely catered meal, sat with the flipping CEO of the company, and danced the night away.  Jovan even won a $50 gift card to Home Depot (mind you, this was one of 5 "small" prizes given away compared to the smart tv, place tickets, and iPad that were also given away)!  I had a blast out on the dance floor with his colleagues, and they even managed to get Jovan out there for quite a few songs...something I have not been able to do in the ten years we have been together!  Since we had an overnight sitter, we were even able to go out with his work buddies and bosses afterwards.  Such a fun night!

Getting ready to Christmas Party!

After yet another busy, party-filled weekend, I was overwhelmed with that blessed feeling!

Christmas 2011-Christmas Day

Every year Christmas day comes, and the Runyon family has already opened our gifts!  We are notorious for not being able to wait until the actual day and often find ourselves opening our gifts on Christmas Eve.  HOWEVER, this year we actually waited, ha!  Since my sister-in-law's parents came in town, we were forced to wait until the actual day since we were splitting time.  We were able to open Santa's gift first thing in the morning though. (Santa only brings one gift to the Tosic house)


That afternoon we read the Christmas story like we do every year, sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus, and opened our gifts.  My parents really outdid themselves this year-they always do, but they really went a little overboard!  I think the commercialism really got to a lot of people this year (my Dad especially) for some reason, and next year we will be forfeitting the gift part and giving to those who need it.  We are truly blessed!

Lilly got these cute "First Holiday" stickers from her "Aunt" Beth

The girls in dresses my Aunt Patty sent them. 

LOVE this girl!

Lainey's present from Nana and Papa--a Barbie bike!!

MORE Barbie stuff!

Barbie Charm School dress--she puts this on EVERY day as soon as she gets home from school.  Hilarious!



Family photo minus Dad...we look a hot mess, ha!

 We had a very Merry Christmas and are looking forward to a fabulous 2012!

Christmas 2011-Christmas Eve

As usual, we had an amazing Christmas.  Seeing as we had a 3 week old, my parents decided to come to our house for the holidays so we wouldn't have to travel.  Bless them!  They arrived on the 23rd, and they just left our house to go home about 15 minutes ago.  Some people would go crazy having their parents stay with them for a week, but I truly enjoy every minute and pretty much cry every time they leave.  I know...weirdo! :)  Anyways...

On Christmas Eve we took Lilly to church for the first time.  Our church had three services on Christmas Eve and the same one on Christmas day.  We decided to go to the 2:30 service on Saturday, and then we headed to my brother and sister-in-law's for dinner with our family and Megan's family.  We had a great dinner followed by some exciting games of Telepictionary and Pit.  We then headed home to make sure our a certain 4 year old's room was clean and that she was getting in bed because Santa doesn't come to a dirty house or a house where kids aren't sleeping, ha!

Lilly's first time at church

Lilly on Christmas Eve

What Lainey did on Christmas Eve :)

Jovan and I with our birthday cake on Christmas Eve

Lainey decided Santa needed cookies and Cuties this year!

We had a great time on Christmas Eve, and I am so grateful to have my parents and brother and sis-in-law so close!

Visiting Santa

We took the girls to see Santa yesterday.  We went to the same Santa we went to last year because he is AMAZING!  I'm pretty sure as long as I have girls that believe in Santa we will track this man down for our visit every year.  He sits there and spends time with each child, and let's be real--he just looks like the real deal.  Both girls cooperated, and Lainey even managed to tell Santa that she wanted a horse for Christmas.  Not really sure where that came from, but he politely told her he could not do that because a horse could not fit on the sleigh...I love this guy!  Now if only he can say the same thing when she starts asking for an iPad, a DS, or things like that! 

We did not want/expect to be in a picture, so you can imagine how excited we were! :)

And just for laughs, here is last year's picture as well.  Love when you can get two years out of an outfit!