I have no clever title

Happy New Years, everyone! I would like to give the staggering statistics of this blog from last year: We had a full 8 posts. And my dear people, that is...just...dreadful. No promises, but maybe we Carlson bloggers over here can do a better job in 2013. But isn't that the way it goes? I mean, the busier you are, the less you write, and then when you look back at your journal, or your blog, you think, wow...I really didn't do anything this year!

Well well well...this post is not to bemoan the lack of ink on my journal pages from last year, or posts on the blog. This is to relate to you about our Christmas and New Years' activities and fun.

The whole Christmas holiday idea came upon me in a flurry this year (or should I say last year) around 11:01 on December 18th when I put my pencil down and handed in that Scantron sheet for my physics final. After I got home, it was time to buckle down and think about Christmas! Between the help of Julie and Amazon Prime, all my presents came in in time and I didn't have to make any of those cards with a picture of the item and the words "Coming soon!" in a pretty font beneath it. Okay, that's actually not true. One present didn't come in, but we didn't make a card, and it was because it was back ordered.

Christmas Eve was celebrated with the Rimbachs, and then we all transferred over to the church building for our second annual Christmas Eve service, where Dad was preaching. The Christmas Eve spirit was heightened by the light snow dusting that fell on the way too and home from the service. The firebush with the lights looked especially beautiful in the snow!

(This is a Swedish Almond Ring my mom made for Christmas Eve. Isn't it beautiful? And don't you wish you could taste it?)

Christmas day was spent at home, as a family. It was a gorgeous relaxing day, even if the snow from the night before did melt. We didn't need to be anywhere, or go anywhere. We drank tea out of my new Tazo mugs that Julie gave me and played Settlers of Catan (anyone played it?). Then, around 9:00 pm we joined our family on the West Coast for our annual rousing gift exchange. That was really fun. =) You can see how much fun we had: (they were trying to pretend the webcam froze)

The next day, the 26th, brought more snow and more fun as we and the Larrazabal boys transferred the celebrations over to the Morrison's house where we watched The Avengers, none of us for the first time, but for the first time as a group. Heads up if you ever watch Avengers with me: Captain America's my favorite, and I may or may not squeal during the movie. We all stayed up till the next morning, some of us till...4:15? I went upstairs to bed around 3:30...I really couldn't think straight. Another head's up: Do not play word games with Catherine at 3:30 in the morning. She comes up with words that you never knew existed (and she didn't either) and she always wins. The next morning was a calm morning of eating pancakes, water squirting fights, and pictures (with multiple and various kinds of cameras):

This is the way we play spoons. We take it VERY seriously:

Like I said. Calm.

That weekend, we had three of the Deutschs come up, and we again had fun, games and fellowship. And we made a pyramid. I don't know what took the Egyptians so long to make those pyramids. We made and disassembled ours by hand within minutes. ...wow. That was incredibly cheesy. Right. Okay, moving on.

For New Year's Eve we went to a home of a family in our church. We played Taboo and discussed the origins and pronunciations of various words. It was a lot of fun.

The next day, we drove down to York, PA in order to visit my dad's sister and her family. We were able to finally meet Patrick's lovely wife Brittany. Spending the first day of the year with extended family is a superbly excellent way to start the year...and bodes well for the rest of it! (that is called foreshadowing.)

Well, so that's a quick run through of the Carlson's holiday season. It was very busy and amazing. Now everyone is getting back to school. Today, Julie started her last semester of undergrad work and is student teaching. Andrew and Mom started a couple days after new years, and I start the 22nd.

Wait. I forgot to mention! Thrown into the holiday fun Andrew started his Eagle Scout project and we helped with our church's Senior dinner.

So there. There's the first post of 2013 and like I've said, hopefully more this year than last!

Picture Credits: Most of the pictures from the time at the Morrisons were taken by Jon Larrazabal.