Christmas 2009!!

I guess this post is what you could call long overdue! But the holidays were very full and very busy so blogging fell a bit by the wayside.

I have enough information to fit into 3 blog posts! so I'm going to attempt to condense it all for you ;)

First of all, Christmas was wonderful. It was spent here at my parents house and we celebrated with my brother and his sweet girlfriend, Gretchen. We had such a great time, and Peyton won the award for biggest pile of presents! She was lavished on by both sets of grandparents and even her great-grandparents! She absolutely LOVED opening all the brightly colored presents and I think she chewed on about 5 or 6 bows throughout the day! Her new toys were a big hit!





My sweet husband bought me an outfit I'd been asking for (I was so touched that he bought me clothes! He's really improving on the shopping front ;) My mom and dad bought me the earrings I've been wanting and a gorgeous white sweater and of course, there was plenty of chocolate!! Yum! It was a great Christmas morning.

That evening, the real shocker came! Bryan pulled me into our room and announced that there was one more present. I looked at him with a smile, and he quickly explained that it was NOT from him. He handed me a wrapped gift with the label "To: Claire, From: SANTA!" I was overwhelmed with curiosity and quickly opened it... no sooner had I realized what I was holding than tears started POURING out of my eyes! I started sobbing!!! Guess what, bloggers???? Remember my post called I have a Dream? Well there in my hands was Adobe Illustrator CS4!!!! I was stunned. When Bryan told me who it was from... I was beyond stunned. My mouth hung open and a whole new round of tears began! I'm not sure if the person wants me to announce their identity so we'll keep it a secret for now ;) But let's just say it's a very old, dear friend who read my blog and decided to make my dream come true. And to you, I say again... THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

So my blog readers, dreams really do come true!!! Now of course, I have a lot of practice and learning ahead of me... but I do it all with a smile on my face and an irrepressible joy in my heart... and well, of course, the knowledge that I am very, very blessed!

I have more news, actually that I need to let you all know about... but it will have to wait for another post (maybe later today) because I have a beautiful little girl that woke up a little too early from her morning nap who is begging for me to play with her!

I hope you all had an incredible Christmas!