A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Christmas celebrations started here with a lot of fun in North Carolina! We celebrated as a family at home before leaving for Ohio in order to avoid taking all of Coby's "loot" up to Columbus with us. He was so much fun! His excitement about his new kitchen certainly did not disappoint us! And, it continues to be a hot item! Funny though, it seems his next favorite gift was MARKERS~ who knew I could make my child so happy with such a small gift. His auntie (a fine art graduate) says he is very expressive with his scribbling :) We are of course oh so proud!

One of my favorite things this year was finding a wonderful, home-made, but super delicious and EASY gift to give. It took some time and creativity, but it kept my baking to a minimum having already done some serious baking for my girlfriend's baby shower (hand-cutout, decorated rubber duckie cookies). Anyhow, a wonderfully yummy, home-made, custom-labeled, jar of hot-cocoa was the gift of the year for me to give to friends at school. It turned out wonderful!

After celebrating Christmas as a small family here in North Carolina. We packed our car up and headed to Ohio to celebrate with our larger family. Coby thoroughly enjoyed spending time with everyone, playing with the "choo-choo" for hours and hours, and of course, opening lots and lots of presents. Thank you family for making our Christmas so fun!



The day after Christmas continues the celebrating in my family, as my oldest niece celebrates her Birthday each year. This year, we did some scheming together over Thanksgiving, and that lead to Aunt Jennifer committing to make a ladybug birthday cake and cupcakes. It was quite the creative coming together of minds between Na and I. I think they turned out rather fun!



Between Christmas and New Years, we took our Heselton Family Trip to the Zoo. While it was a little bit rushed, we all had a great time! Seeing some of the animals, lots of the lights, and wearing fun glow necklaces from Grandpa made for an extra fun hour at the zoo! Only the oldest grandchildren wished for more time~ the rest of us were happy to get back into the warmth!





Finally, our trip to Columbus couldn't be complete without a trip to COSI now that we have a NC Museum of Life and Science membership with reciprocal privileges. So much fun! Coby, Dada, Mama, and Angelica had fun playing and learning. Coby's favorites included the giant light-bright, the Oceans exhibit, and Little KidSpace. He loved playing in the water (despite getting soaked and having to ride home without any clothes)! It was a great time!



Back in North Carolina for a week now, we are loving having our family routine back, but missing all of the family. We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's, and are so excited for all of the fun we have planned for 2011!