ONE IS THE LONELIEST NUMBER

For 4 1/2 years of marriage, Skyler and I have been a one car couple. While Skyler was in law school we could not manage the extra expense of a second car. For all that time we made it work. When we lived in Indiana, I was fortunate enough to carpool to work everyday with two of my greatest friends. That helped eliminate much of the stress, but there were still times that Skyler would be stuck at the law school without a ride home. Even this year there have been times that I was stuck waiting to pick up slugs at the Pentagon and made Skyler wait at the train station for a LONG time. (If you happened to miss what "slugs" were, feel free to peruse my most recent posts- it's crazy)

After much prayer we decided it was the right time to go car shopping. We did our homework and researched everything that we could. After coming back from Wisconsin we took a day to test drive our top three choices, and here's what we decided on:

We welcome the newest addition to the Bradbury Family-

A GMC Terrain- It's one of the new crossover vehicles, which gets better gas mileage than our Mazda.

Looks good from the back. Here's a random side note: I've always thought that it's a bit unfair that music directors (whether it be choir, band, or orchestra) have to have their back to the audience during concerts. No woman that I've ever met wants that to be the side that people remember. If only there were another way to direct our groups. :-)

A view of the front.

You've now seen it from every angle. We really thought we were going to go with a black car again, but we ended up loving the blue.

Lastly, the interior. On Thursday, as usual I picked up two people from the Pentagon. The man who got into the back seat had to have been at least 6' 6". The lady in the front seat was kind enough to ask if he had enough room. His reply was, "Are you kidding? This is as big as the Queen Mary back here." I was glad to know that he was comfortable. As I was about to drop people off at the commuter lot on Wednesday afternoon, the man in the front seat said, "Wow. that was so comfortable, I almost fell asleep. I wanted to say, "You must have missed the part where you snored LOUDLY for the last 15 minutes." That made me laugh. Usually the people in the car do go right to sleep, but never had I heard snoring like that. :-)

PRESENTING...PRINCESS NATALIE!

Or is it Princess Jasmine? Or maybe Princess Ariel? When Skyler and I first arrived in Wisconsin we made a dinner stop at our favorite restaurant, Culvers. This has become a tradition for us whenever we get back into Wisconsin. We were very excited to go there because we knew that my parents, Jane & Aaron, and Elizabeth's family would be there with us, too. When we first saw our 3-year old niece, Natalie, we both gave her a hug and said, "Hi Natalie! How are you?" Her reply was, "I'm not Natalie. I'm Princess Jasmine." From that moment on we had to do our best to remember which princess she was at that particular moment. Love it!

Natalie turned 3 in the middle of December, and Elizabeth & Ethan were kind enough to move her birthday party to the day after Christmas so that Skyler and I could be there to celebrate with everyone. We were so thrilled that they would do that! We aren't home for the nieces and nephews birthdays, so it was special to be there with them. Well, Natalie decided that she wanted a princess birthday party. She's a girl after my own heart! She was the cutest 3 year old princess that I've ever seen. She was so gracious and polite the entire day, which my Grandma and I decided doesn't always happen on a child's birthday. Here are some of my favorite pics from the day.

The princess herself posing for a picture. She decided to be Princess Ariel for the day. The cutest part of all is that she pronounces it Princess "Oriole."

Cousin Mina, Aunt Jackie, Natalie, and Cousin Calvin wait patiently for the cake to be cut.

Here are the beautiful cakes. I love the castle cake, and the crown that lights up!

Here's Natalie blowing out her candles. Calvin is watching to make sure she did it right. :-)

Cousin Mayzie and Natalie are thoroughly enjoying their cake.

Elizabeth helps Natalie with the present opening. Cousin Kailey was ready to help, too!

Uncle Joe takes time to play with Alex and Calvin. They LOVE Joe!

Natalie is enjoying a jewelry box with her dancing ballerina.

After the party was done, Alex and Uncle Skyler took time to build the dinosaur Alex got for Christmas.

And, finally...my personal favorite. Princess Ariel by day- Storm Trooper by night.

CHRISTMAS DAY

Christmas Day is another special day! Since Skyler and I were the only kids at my parents on Christmas morning, we decided to save some present exchanging until then. It was a highly unusual sight for the kids to sleep in later than the adults. That was NEVER the case when I was younger. My little sister and I would be up several hours before anyone else, and thought that everyone took much too long to get ready to open gifts. Now, we're trying to get all the sleep we can, knowing that in a few years we will have kids who think it wise to get up at the wee hours of the morning.

Here's Dad with the new DVDs from us to add to his collection.

Skyler with a new game for his PS3.

Me about to find out that Skyler is taking me to see WICKED in New York City! Behind me is a gorgeous fall floral arrangement my parents. It's going to look perfect in our dining room! Mom opened her gift from us the night before, since it was from the Moneypenny's and the Bradbury's.

After presents were opened, we packed up the car and drove over to Grandma Costabile's for a Christmas Day celebration. Grandma has been kind enough to host Christmas for as long as I've been around, and many more years before that. She is such a gracious host, and always makes everyone feel so at home. We love going to her house since we get to see extended family that we don't often see through the year. It's our chance to get caught up with everyone's exciting lives, and to show each other just how loved everyone is.

Here is the Costabile family enjoying a Christmas Day feast.

Jane and I couldn't resist the chance to take a picture with our "best buddy", Uncle Jim. Uncle Jim is the brother-in-law of our Grandpa Costabile. Grandpa's sister, Rose, was the last surviving sibling in Grandpa's family until just last month. We missed seeing our Aunt Rose this year, but we were so glad that our cousins, Jim and Pat, would come with Uncle Jim to celebrate Christmas with us. Being with family is such a huge part of what makes Christmas so special to me.

This was a special part of the day for the kids. Uncle Bob (my Dad's brother-in-law) came up with a special project for the little kids. They were going to make reindeer cupcakes. Uncle Bob put a cupcake inside of an ice cream cone, frosted it, stuck two mini pretzel rods on top, and then used M&Ms for eyes and a nose. They were adorable, and the kids loved making them. Here's Uncle Bob showing the kids how to make the special cupcakes.

Here are the kids hard at work, while Uncle Bob inspects their progress. Once all the cupcakes were decorated the kids passed them out to all of us. It was especially cute to see the little girls sweetly give their special reindeer cupcake to one of their cute boy cousins. :)

TRADITIOOOOONNNNN. TRADITION---TRADITION.

One of the many things I love is creating traditions with my family. Christmas Eve just happens to be one of those times where my favorite traditions occur. For as long as I can remember, Christmas Eve has been the most special night of the year. Everyone dresses up for an elaborate feast that my parents host. Dad does most of the cooking, preparing a shrimp feast for us seafood lovers, and an equally wonderful feast for the non-seafood lovers. It's a fabulous night that reminds us how lucky we are to be surrounded by our wonderful family, and it gives us the chance to reflect on the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

This is where the feast occurs. Our family has grown so much in the past few years that we added two white tables to the big dining room table. It was such a great feeling to look down the table and see my parents, my siblings, all of our nieces and nephews, our sweet aunt, and the matriarch of our family, Grandma Costabile. It's truly a special time, and it is a night that we look forward to all year. This year, while we ate, we had a special surprise for my parents. A tradition that we absolutely love is singing Christmas carols as a family. During dinner we always dim the lights and listen to a CD of Christmas favorites and then do the family singing after dinner. This year, Elizabeth, Jane, Alex, Natalie, and I made a CD of us singing our favorite Christmas songs and had that playing during dinner.

Another tradition we have is to read the Christmas story after dinner is done. Our parents raised us to have a deep and abiding love for our Heavenly Father and His son, Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for that. They taught us from a young age that Christmas is about remembering the birth and life of Jesus, always reminding us that it's because of Him that we are able to go through this life, and one day return home to our Heavenly Father. I'm so glad to see that our nieces and nephews are being raised with this same love for the Savior. Last year, as a special gift for our parents, we had all the kids act out the Christmas Story- complete with costumes and songs. This year, our nephew Alex asked if he could be the one to read. He did such a fantastic job. He and Dad took turns reading, and it was just as special as it was last year.

Aunt Jackie (my brother Joe's wife) had a lapful of kids, all quietly listening to Alex and Grandpa. From left to right: Calvin, Mayzie, Mina, Jackie, and Natalie.

The other tradition we have is to exchange gifts on Christmas Eve, instead of Christmas morning. Since all of the siblings are married now, everyone tries to spend time with both sides of their family. We all get together at my parents for Christmas Eve, and then everyone goes to their in-laws on Christmas Day. For many years present opening has taken only minutes because all the kids start unwrapping at the same time. That leaves the adults with lots of, "Who was that from? Was that yours or your cousins? Did you unwrap the entire gift?" To help avoid those questions, and so we could all see what everyone got this year, we decided to have the kids open their gifts one at a time. The kids were surprisingly great about this. In this picture you can see 5 little heads watching one of the cousins unwrap their new gift.

Mom, Grandma Costabile, and Aunt Susan

My cute sister, Jane- SOOO excited to open a gift!

Dad, with his new favorite toy!

Even the "big kids" enjoyed unwrapping their gifts. :)

One of my favorite parts of the night was seeing the kids in their new pajamas. They were so excited to wear them that they all changed right in the middle of the basement. Here they are modeling their new PJs.

Alex

Mina

Natalie

Calvin

Mayzie

Our little cuties take a moment to stop and pose for the camera. The only cutey we were missing was cousin Kailey.

Alex loves to have "group hugs". Here are the cousins in their very own group hug. I love seeing all those little hands giving each other such sweet hugs.

This was the group hug right before they all toppled to the ground. Mayzie clearly knew what was happening and tried to escape before the big fall.

Christmas Eve was perfect in every way, and I'm so grateful that we could be part of it. Here are some more pictures from the evening's festivities.

Mom and Dad's beautiful Christmas Tree. This picture only begins to capture how pretty it really is. My Dad is the King of Christmas Tree lights.

Me, Joe (my big brother), and Mayzie (Joe's youngest)

Alex took my camera so he could take a picture of his pretty mom- my sister, Elizabeth.

Our beautiful niece, Kailey (Aaron & Jane's daughter) showing us her new sweater.

Aunt Kasey with her sweet nephew, Alex (Elizabeth & Ethan's oldest)

Aunt Kasey with her other adorable nephew, Calvin (Joe & Jackie's 2nd)

Dessert time! Mina (Joe & Jackie's oldest) was eying up the whip cream on her plate.

Mayzie decided to dig right in!

THE SNOW SCULPTING FESTIVAL

We were fortunate enough to head North again for Christmas this year. We spent almost a week in Wisconsin, spending that time with our fabulous family. While my Mom and I were running some errands one day, she decided to take me to downtown Racine. We stopped at Monument Square (just a block away from Lake Michigan) to see one of the coolest sights I had ever seen. Racine decided to host a snow sculpting competition and festival. Several experienced sculptors were given a 4-by-4-by 8 foot block of snow and one weekend in which to sculpt their masterpiece. Spectators were encouraged to come downtown to witness these incredible people at work. I was lucky enough to get these pictures before the snow started to melt any more than it already had. This shows how awesome Racine is!

This was one of my favorites- two little elves building a giant snowman!

The dancing bears

Santa rockin' out on his guitar

This was appropriately named "The Kiss"

I loved this one- "The Blind Date". You can see him carrying a sweet little flower in his hand.

My other favorite- The "thinking" pose. And, yes...that man is sitting on a toilet.