28 December 2010

No Words


Okay, some words. Christmas 2010 rocked my socks! Hope yours was just as wonderful!

25 December 2010

Merry Christmas To All...

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and to all a good night.

23 December 2010

The Goose Is Getting Fat

And Christmas is definitely coming at the Manning house!
December has been jam packed with festivities! Here's what we've been up to.

1. Holden has been rightly wary of Santa, both real and fake.
No pictures with real Santa because, well, look at how nervous fake Santa made him!

2.We went to the Festival of Trees, where we looked at hundreds of amazingly decorated trees. However, if you were to ask Holden what he did at the Festival of Trees, he would tell you that he watched dancers and clapped.
3. Reo and I celebrated our 2nd annual Manning Family Employee Appreciation Christmas Party, eating breakfast at the Grand America Hotel. Because let's face it, the grownups in this family worked hard this year! We documented the occasion by taking one of those awkward self portraits that really shouldn't have made it onto the blog. Oh well.
4. Those of my family members who were lucky enough to not have work/school/other lame-o time suckers made a gazillion cookies. Holden ate nearly all of them, and threw up that night. Merry Christmas.
5. Awesome friend party with the always entertaining white elephant game, lots of chatting, and getting 3 two year olds to sit and watch a movie (Toy Story 3, you produced a Christmas miracle, thank you).
Yes, folks, Christmas is getting close. I know this because the rad Christmas countdown chain Holden made in nursery no longer resembles this...
And our once full Christmas candy jar now looks like this...

12 December 2010

A Big Birthday Post

In the spirit of all things holiday lately, we celebrated Reo's birthday all week long this week. And seriously, if anyone deserves the birthday hoopla, it's him.
Seriously, who else do you know who wakes up at 5:30 AM, goes to work all day, studies for a million hours after work and barely has time to change his clothes before his cranky wife complains to him that she has been playing with their kid ALL DAY and needs a break.
He deserves way more than a night out at a kinda nasty bowling alley (oxymoron?), but that is what he got.

We had a good time, though, as evidenced by this picture of the back of people's heads (action shots are difficult while bowling).
And Holden totally seemed to enjoy his cheater bowling.

I enjoyed looking at Holden's teeny tiny bowling shoes.

I also enjoyed that the bowling cake I made turned out looking halfway like a bowling cake...And if you'll recall, my track record for these things is pretty much the worst.
On the actual big day, we stuck to the basics: Presents and Cold Stone cupcakes

Holden and I also handcrafted this awesome birthday banner. No coloring session at the Mannings is complete without Holden requesting I draw The Beatles, which is why there are four stick figures in the middle of our banner. What, you didn't recognize them? Shame on you.

We closed out the week with a joint birthday dinner at my parent's house for Reo and Cami, who also drew the unfortunate lot of having a December birthday. Here's a picture of the birthday kids.
Oh, and we had cake again, because, well, why not?

Happy 28th birthday, Reo! You are pretty much awesome!

01 December 2010

You Know The Drill

Good news, everyone. Christmas cards are a go. I know, right? What a relief. Just don't judge the picture too harshly and remember that in real life he is about the cutest thing that ever lived.
Not actual Christmas card photo
True to last year's promise, I only need your address if one of the following applies to you:

a. You have moved and haven't given me your new address.
b. We weren't friends last year, but we are now.
c. You didn't want a card last year, but have found the error in your thinking and changed your ways.

If any of those are you, please email your address to juliana.manning@gmail.com. And don't be shy, Costco sells their Christmas cards in packs of 50, and unfortunately I am almost sure I have far fewer than 50 friends.

Also, cards will go out on or before December 10th, so don't delay! Merry Christmas!