The Holidays

Wow, this has been a very busy January! I can't believe it is already the middle of the month. With both Gage and I coaching different middle school basketball teams, we are very busy. My team has activities five days this week (including Saturday) and Gage's team had them on four. So it's been a lot of late evenings (not coming home till 8) and cereal for dinner. It's exhausting, but fun. Because of that, I somehow forgot to post our photos from the holidays! So, here's a little recap.
We traveled to Indiana for Christmas and it was COLD!! We started the trip with a short visit with Brandy in Indianapolis. We saw some of the fun decorated sites near her house and enjoyed a great dinner followed by some Wii action.
When we arrived in northern Indiana, the temp was hovering around 0, but dipped well below with wind chills. There was ice everywhere and the power lines went down at my parents house. So, we met at a hotel. Thankfully, the power came back quickly as they were originally forecasting several days before its return. We were able to meet Jenna for the first time, which was very exciting. Ema really enjoyed holding her and being around her -- as well as her cousins Skylar, Lizzy and Ellie too. That's a lot of girl power!! Jenna really took to Gage. He somehow had the magic touch in holding her. Christmas was a wonder for all the girls as they enjoyed their many gifts from Santa. It was fun to see all the girls together playing and just really enjoying each other.
Our trip back to Virginia was not fun as Ema got really sick. So, it made for an extra long 13-hour drive. Not fun at all!
We watched Xon and Ronin on New Year's Eve and the kids enjoyed their own ringing in of the new year (around 9:30) complete with real champagne glasses filled with sparkling grape juice and complemented by a variety of appetizers. What more could a kid want? In lieu of a gift this year, we spent some time together with Xon and Ronin -- at Chuck E. Cheese. With almost 150 tokens between the three kids, they went crazy and had a blast.
I hope the new year is treating you well. I know the Harter family is blessed so far in 2009.
Enjoy photos:
Christmas in Indiana
Special time with Xon and Ronin