Blame the pregger brain. Blame the backaches and lack of sleep. Blame my distractingly adorable baby niece or our ridiculously long to-do list. It’s 9:15 on Tuesday evening and this is the first time the fact that it’s Travelling Tuesday has occurred to me.

We’re still friends right?

The great news is, we were blessed with a fantabulous new camera, and I am over the moon to have some beautiful shots for you from the holidays. Whoo-hoo! There’s so much to share this might take a few days…but let’s get started anyway!

My Mom’s Tree was the most magical it has ever been. I can’t believe I haven’t spent more time staring at it.

The cousins got back together, and it was like no time had passed at all. Neither the Bear nor his parents endorse smoking crayons.

The Bear practiced a few tunes and had them ready for Emmi Claire’s arrival.

WE MADE COOKIES! But I opened the can of premade icing can we bought at Target (pictured below) that had several nozzles and was supposed to make icing cookies a breeze and it fizzed and popped and then the icing wouldn’t come out. My Mom saved the day and whipped up some icing from scratch, which I decided to divide and colour, and we ended up having more colours and prettier cookies in the end!

All’s well that ends well, hey?

We were pleased with the finished product, and for the next several days instead of asking for “break” (meaning breakfast) each morning, the Bear signed and repeatedly asked for cook-ee, cook-eee…

The Bear got a puppy!

And my cutie-pie niece seemed to just keep getting cuter and cuter!

See what I mean?

My brother arrived and his dog became the resident reindeer.

A happy Christmas morning finally came…

And the cousins had a few new toys to … share.

And a few more after a visit to Gpa’s house, where it was also discovered that Emmi Claire loves butterbeans.

Even the iPhoto calendars are getting cuter!

And though there are lots more photos I’m looking forward to sharing, we’ll have to call it a Tuesday right here…because after all of the delightful holiday togetherness…

I feel a bit like this!

Happy Tuesday, Happy Holidays…Happy Trails for the year ahead! The best, dear friends, is yet to come.

xCC