I’m finishing up our holiday fun today with what we did on New Years Eve and the days after.  Here are some pictures of our fun.

On New Years Eve we went bowling.  Hailey had never been bowling before and she was really excited to try it out.  See her cute little bowling shoes?

Hailey hanging out waiting for her turn.  (My brother Matt took this picture.)

Hailey getting ready to bowl. 

Hailey had a lot of fun bowling.  She did have one little mishap when she tried to take off down the lane to get her ball.  I didn’t expect her to do it so I wasn’t ready to catch her.  And as you know those lanes are very slippery.  So she slipped and fell backwards hitting her head on the floor.  She was fine after a few minutes and really enjoyed the rest of the bowling (and did not try to run after her ball again).

After bowling we spent New Years Eve at my parents house playing games, eating and talking.  Except for Rich- he hadn’t been feeling well since the afternoon and by the evening time the stomach bug had hit him full force.  For some reason I didn’t get any pictures of our New Years Eve but we did have a great time (except for Rich being sick).

In the morning Hailey helped Uncle Matt make some of his famous pancakes and we enjoyed a big breakfast.

Later on Hailey and Aunt Ellie made some cookies that they found in Hailey’s new cookbook she got for Christmas.

Decorating the cookies (which were really cute and yummy!)

The next day Hailey and Pa did a little sled riding.

The first time down the hill- I think Hailey looks a little nervous.

Looks like they had fun!

Back up the hill to do it again.

I love the expression on her face in this one.

We had lots of fun while visiting with everyone over Christmas vacation.  We can’t wait to see everyone again!

I know I haven’t posted in almost 2 weeks… I’ve been soooooo sick and also busy, but I will post more about that later.  Right now, I’m just wondering where all of my readers have gone to?  I noticed a big drop in my traffic and my comments.  I also noticed that Google Reader seems to hate me and has decided not to update my posts anymore.  The last one updated was on December 14th even though I’ve posted several times since then.  So if you use Google Reader- did it update and tell you I had a new post? 

And if you haven’t been by in a while- check out my Merry Christmas post where Hailey tells the story of Christmas.  It’s just soooo cute!

I’ll be back tomorrow with a post about what we’ve been up to.

I have received this fun Christmas questionnaire in my email a few times, so I thought it would be fun to post my answers on my blog.

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Both- but probably more wrapping paper.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Artificial
3. When do you put up the tree? Usually the first week in December.
4. When do you take the tree down? It’s a little embarrassing to admit it, but it usually stays up until February.  I learned this from my mom.
5. Do you like eggnog? I love eggnog!
6. Favorite gift received as a child? I can’t really think of a specific gift.  But I think more important than the gifts I received is the memories I have.  I have a lot of great memories from Christmas time and that is my favorite gift!
7. Hardest person to buy for? Rich
8. Easiest person to buy for? Hailey
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? I mail them.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? I’ve never received a bad Christmas gift.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie?  Christmas Vacation
13 When do you start shopping for Christmas? On Black Friday
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? I would never do something like that…
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? All of the yummy Christmas cookies
16. Lights on the tree? We have white lights on our tree.
17. Favorite Christmas song?  Daddy Stuff by Sammy Kershaw
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? I can’t decide on this one.  I want to be home so Hailey can open her presents on Christmas morning and spend the day playing with her new things.  But, I also want to be with our family.
19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? Yup
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Christmas morning
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? Not getting to spend time with everyone I want to be with.
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? My favorite ornaments are the ones I have that Brooke made when she was little.  I also have one that I made of Hailey’s hand print the year she was born that I love.  My theme on my tree is different shades of blue, silver and snowmen.
24. Favorite thing for Christmas dinner? I am stealing my mom’s answer for this one- We always went to my grandparents house for Christmas dinner and there are a lot of good memories. I wish we could all go back just one more time for one of Grammy’s Christmas dinners with all the trimmings.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? I want everyone to be healthy and happy.
26. Who is most likely to respond to this? Everyone who loves me
27. Who is least likely to respond: People who do not love me.

So, now if you love me- post your answers!  Let me know if you do play along so I can check out your answers.

About a month ago I posted Fighting the Winter Blues where I joined in on Andrea’s Winter Activity Menu Challenge.

So, I had all of my fabulous plans in place.  Then Hailey got sick.  And do you know how many of the fun ideas we did?  One.  Out of the 12.  We did have our baking night and we made a yummy cake.  But everything else on the list?  We didn’t do it.  I was supposed to post about my successes/failures on November 21st- but I was much too busy feeling depressed to post about it.

So it’s time to post again- and I don’t really have anything new to share.  The last 2 weeks were pretty good because we spent a week at my parents house for Thanksgiving.  Since we got home on Monday I have been pretty busy putting away fall decorations, getting my Christmas decorations out and doing some work related stuff, so we have been pretty occupied this week.

This weekend my parents will be here and we are all going to see a Christmas play.  After that my plans are pretty much non-existent.  Honestly at this point- I don’t know if we’re going back to any of our mommy groups.  I know people tell me that Hailey has to be exposed to germs at this age and get sick in order to build up her immune system.  The problem is that when Hailey gets sick she has a hard time breathing.  And listening to Hailey wheeze and struggle to breathe between coughs all night long just because I want to get out of the house isn’t something I think I can do yet.  I hate pumping chemicals into her body (her nebulizer treatment so that she can breathe) just so that we can go to some playgroups.

So for right now, I don’t know what our plans are for the next couple of weeks.  I do know that it’s not even technically winter yet and I am already feeling down, depressed and lonely.  I don’t know how I’ll stand it until spring.

Sorry this was such a depressing post today.  But it’s just how I’m feeling.