Peanut Butter and Jimmy Jam: Christmas (part 1)

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were a little crazy...in a good way of course! The weather forecast called for a huge storm and travel was not advisable for Christmas Day, so the entire Ruden clan did a quick change of plans and ended up coming Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day as originally planned. Tom and I were really worried that we were going to have to spend Christmas by ourselves so we were really relieved that our company could still make it, and I think the extra day was really the way to go. Everyone could just relax and kickback knowing they wouldn't have to worry about traveling again for awhile. Paul, Cathy, Grandma, Andy, Billie, and Gillian (or for those of you who don't know the Rudens-Tom's dad, mom, grandma, brother, sister-in-law, and our 3 year-old niece) all made the trek to Des Moines. We had a nice afternoon on Christmas Eve, went to Hope's awesome Christmas Eve service, and then Tom and I headed over to my parents' house to fondue. It amazes me every year that we can fondue without burning the house down, but this year it really seemed smoother than usual. I don't even think there were any minor burns, and if you know the crew that was there (Craig, Karla, Dennis, Amy, Hannah, Joe, Bill, Jane, and of course me, Tom, and James), you know that's saying a lot because we don't always follow safety instructions!
Christmas Eve also brought the excitement of me and Tom traipsing through the neighborhood looking for Foxy. Tom and my dad had the bright idea to let her run home from my parents' house without a leash on. I realize they just live down the street, but Foxy isn't the most reliable dog. She tries to be good, but if there's a squirrel she just can't control herself. Sure enough, as soon as Tom let her go, she took off. So Tom and I spent a very scary 30 minutes following her tracks in the snow and yelling for her. I'm sure people in the neighborhood loved having weird people right outside their windows at 1:00 in the morning, but I'll do anything for my Foxy. Thank goodness we left James asleep with my parents otherwise I'm not sure how we would have chased Foxy for so long.
Christmas Day was a really nice, laidback day. We opened presents, watched Gillian and James play with their new stuff (Gillian really liked Jamesie's toys and James was really impressed with her stuff-neither seemed very interested in their own presents), talked, ate, and just had a really nice day.
The bad news is I kept misplacing my camera so I don't have very good pictures of Christmas morning. I'm hoping people will take pity on me and e-mail the pictures they took and then I can post a Christmas (part 2) blog. So here are a few Christmas pictures (and some others that are cute too)...

I'm so big with my sippy cup...

I can even take it with me when I'm on the move.

Enjoying his new tub toys...this is Jamesie's first time in the real bathtub and this picture was taken about 10 seconds before he burst into tears. Poor little guy screamed until we got him out, I guess maybe he's not ready for a real bath but he's getting too big for the sink. He might have to be the smelly kid for awhile :).