Christmas #1 Recap

Michael and I have this fight every year where we groan about the upcoming holiday season and stomp our feet whilst adamantly proclaiming: "Only one Christmas this year!  Only ONE!"  And every year, we lose.  It's not that we have no will power; it's just that each Christmas is special because of who it is spent with.  And really, when you have the only grandchild, you kinda have to give in and go to different houses so each set of grandparents get equal time.  Because each of these Christmases is so wonderful, I've decided each one will get it's own recap.  Obviously, you can choose to read them or just scroll through and look at pictures :o)  I don't blame you if you just scroll. 

And next year, we will only have one Christmas!  I swear it!

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Michael and I were acutely reminded this weekend that we are not in college anymore as evidenced by the headaches and subsequent feelings of having been run over by a Mack truck.  We've been celebrating the holidays and Michael's sister's college graduation the last three days and it's left us a little worse for wear.  We had a great time though!

On Friday, Michael's sister Michelle graduated from Texas State University.  We are very proud of her as she is the first of Michael's siblings to finish college and we know that she has great things in store!  The Guerra clan gathered at River Pub in San Marcos for drinks, lunch and cake.  The younguns carried the celebration back to cousin Stephen Travis's house where we grilled out, played some Texas Hold 'Em and had ourselves a grand ol' time while carrying on late into the night.  Actually, THEY carried on late into the night.  Michael and I headed home around 8 to get Sybilla into bed at a decent time and then promptly crashed ourselves.

Could you not ask for a better day?  The San Marcos River was looking lush and lovely as always!

Here's the graduate herself!  Gramma and Grandpa brought the bobcat with them to celebrate...yes, they have a stuffed bobcat that they got from some antique shop years ago!  He shows up in a lot of pictures actually, lol.

Michael and his cousin, Stephen Travis...they look like they're up to no good!

Gramma Bobbe, Michelle, and DJ sipping on "pina toladas" as DJ called them  (DJ is Michelle's biological son, but was adopted by Marian and Nathan, two incredibly wonderful people who insisted on having DJ's 'tummy mommy and daddy' present in his life.  It's hard to believe DJ is going to be seven soon!)

Sybilla and I spent Saturday running errands, shopping, preparing for a baby shower, and trying to bake.  I say 'trying' because nothing really got done and I ended up having to take it with me when we went to Michael's dad's house that evening for dinner.  The baby shower in question was for one of Michael's co-workers and I made her a really cute motorcycle themed diaper cake as her gift from us.  After the shower, we went to go visit Zeti and Tata (Michael's dad and stepmom).  Michael's half-sister Denise was in town visiting for the holidays and we decided that it was in our best interest to stay the night there so that we could really spend some getting to know her while she was in town.  Denise lives in Tulsa and the last time that Michael really spent any time with her was about 15 years ago.  We stayed up way too late and cracked open one too many bottles of wine while talking and singing karaoke late into the night.  I managed to get my baking for the weekend complete with the help of Michael's sister Caitlyn who is also interested in baking.  We made an awesome and very realistic looking buche de noel.  I will be posting a tutorial on how to make one of these on my baking blog very soon!

Here's the diaper cake I made.  I've been wanting to make this bad boy for AGES and I finally got to.  Cute overload!

My new favorite Billa and Daddy picture.  Seriously, Billa was OVERJOYED to "ride" the motorcycle with her daddy.

The Buche de Noel aka Yule Log.  Tres buche-y.

Sunday was spent in Victoria, TX for the annual Guerra Family Christmas Fiesta (it's not really called that, BTW, but it sure sounds fun, doesn't it?).  We usually eat ourselves silly and drink ourselves merry, and we did just that.  The gift exchange is usually hours in length since there are usually 30 of us going around a circle one at a time unwrapping gifts, but because we did not have the entire clan, it was much shorter in length, thank goodness!  Billa received the most adorable little table and chairs for her bedroom along with a really cute tutu and matching headband from the gift exchange.  Michael and I got some nice goodies too: some movies, a nice bottle of wine, some gift cards, a cake book, and a wine bottle shaped platter for cheese.  I also got a year subscription to Cooking Light magazine which I am way excited about.  Huzzah!

Cathy's dining room - I love the ornaments hanging on the chandelier!

The Guerra's in Victoria have a way fun swing set which Sybilla climbed all over until dinner time.

Sybilla had a lot of fun playing with her cousin Grace's toys...until Grace got tired of Billa touching everything and locked her out of her room.  Who knew seven year olds cared about cleanliness?!

Putting her crayons into her little crayon go pouch.

Billa shows off some jazz hands while wearing her new tutu.

Billa's new table and chairs...now all it requires is a tea set!

We finally made it home about nine last night and we stayed up a little bit later to finish up some presents before finally calling it a night.  It was a long weekend and we're feeling a little worse for wear from it, but we wouldn't have it any other way -- the holidays are best spent with those you love.  We have a few days to catch back up on our sleep and prepare ourselves for yet another crazy fun filled weekend.  Christmas Eve will find us at Austin Park n Pizza with Michael's mom and then Christmas morning we'll be with Michael's dad, stepmom and his sisters.  Then we'll spend the afternoon with my folks and brothers and my friend John (and anyone else that decides to show up...the Dillon family always has an extra plate and chair for whoever happens along, which happens all the time at holidays, lol. I chalk it up to our awesome cooking!)

In case it gets so busy that we aren't able to post again til next week,  we want to wish you all a very merry and happy Christmas.  May it be filled with family and friends, warm fuzzies, and wonderful memories!

Happy Christmas!

Love, Kelly, Michael, & Sybilla