Holiday Highlights 2009

With my new commitment to blog again comes a mad scramble to catch up on the events I have missed blogging about. Our Christmas season was a whirlwind! Seems a lot of people felt that way this year. I am having a hard time believing it came and went already. But I have pictures to prove December actually happened! Here are the McAfee holiday highlights in pictures:

It snowed again in Houston this December! Anna is seen trying to make a snow angel on the hood of our car. (Silly Houston-born kid. She doesn't understand the concept of snow angel making.)

Here is Anna at her school Christmas concert. (On the end in the green pants.) She auditioned for and got the role of the coveted "Elf #5", complete with two-line speaking part. She outshone every third grader in the cafe-gym-ma-torium that evening. Needless to say, we were very proud.

We could not keep our newest pet out of the Christmas tree this year. Yes, I said new pet. Don't ask. Let's just say I have more compassion than brains.

Ahhh....sisterly love on Christmas Eve following our church service.


A family portrait. And the first of several holiday photos that have convinced me that those P90X dvds need dusting off. Did I not have a waist at one point in my life?

Sorry mom! My parents visited us for Christmas and I got several nice shots of the girls with my mom. Unfortunately for her, I chose to use the goofy one. Bonus points for mom though. My dad was in jeans and a t-shirt in 2 seconds flat after coming home from church, therefore declining any photos.

Once again, the obligatory top-of-the-stairs on Christmas morning photo of the girls.

OOOOO......Santa was here! And he ate off of Anna's homemade Christmas plate.

Further proof that Santa visited the McAfees! Anna must have been a very good girl.

These two have got to be two of the biggest Glee fans on earth. No matter that they have downloaded almost every Glee song recorded within 2 hours of an episode airing on tv, Santa thought they should have the cds.

What? She put it on her Christmas list. I just called her bluff.

Not to be outdone in the gag gift department, Claire gifted Meghan with the new Susan Boyle cd. It will fit nicely in her music collection, right between the All American Rejects and Lady Gaga.

And as quickly as it came, Christmas went! As always, we were very blessed. We enjoyed my parents' visit, ate our weight in all kinds of goodies, and spent lots of time together watching movies, playing Wii and just laughing and talking. Oh, and yanking the new kitten out of the Christmas tree. Next year I am asking Santa for my sanity back.

For my family

Um, I stopped blogging. Not intentionally. I began sorting through summer vacation photos back in July to post my recap of a most excellent summer trip to Southern California. I became entirely bogged down by the sheer number of photos I had taken and my complete inability to edit them down into a reasonable post length. So, there the post sat as a "draft" in my blog account. And then I refused to blog anything else until I posted that entry. And that turned into weeks, which turned into months, which turned into......where the hell did 2009 go?

Jack and the girls have gently reminded/chided/harassed me the entire time about blogging again. And unfortunately, I just never made it a top priority. Why spend hours on a blog entry about a family vacation that perhaps only my family will see? My audience is not exactly far reaching, and there are more productive ways to spend my time most days. But then, I kind of had a revelation about this little blog o mine. Though I am not entertaining 100s (10s?) of followers like dooce, for instance (her audience is actually far larger than that), what I do have here IS important to the 10 or so people that follow me. This digital journal matters to the people who matter most to me. And, so I renew my commitment to my "little corner of life".

And because my most ardent supporter (read: the one who emailed and commented on a regular basis for me to blog again) has a birthday tomorrow, I thought it would be fitting to blog again on her Birthday Eve. So CB.....this one's for you.

(And Meg, Anna, Jack, mom, dad, Aunt Edna, Cousin Eddie.....this one's for you too.)