Merry Christmas!!

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We had a quiet Christmas Eve at our house. We had 9 people for dinner and served an Italian fare. We had a Happy Birthday Jesus cake and sang to Jesus. We talked with the kids about the true meaning of Christmas and then it was time to get the cookies and milk out for Santa. Wendy helped Matthew write a letter to Santa. He asked for Woody from Toy story and all sorts of other toys. The kids got to bed at a decent time and we got to bed ourselves, knowing we had a busy day ahead of us.
Christmas we awoke to Matthew ready to see what Santa left him. We opened our stockings at our house which Matthew did get his Woody from Toy Story. We then went down to Wendy's mom's house. We had 14 people there. Tom's parents and brother were there. Wendy's parents, grandparents, her sister and her niece Ellie were all there. It was a little crazy. We got through the presents with relative ease. We had a fun day playing with all the toys we received. Having kids is so much fun we can play with all their toys. Ellie and Matthew both got roller skates so they were working on that. Victoria got a baby doll and wouldn't put it down.
Amy's new boyfriend joined us for dinner so we had 15 for dinner. We love it coming both from a small family. For all of you who were there thank you for making our Christmas special. Have a wonderful New Year to all of you. We will write soon.

The Johnson Family

Monterey/Carmel

The Johnson side of our clan decided to go up to Monterey and Carmel for a couple of days. We are showing Tim(Tom's Brother) California. The kids were great on the car ride and we got up there Tuesday afternoon with time to explore Carmel. We walked around the town a little bit and then went to the beach. We had so much fun exploring the beach. The kids(with our help) climbed a tree. Matthew, Tom, Mr. J and Tim went up and found a couple balls from Pebble Beach. They also climbed up and stood on Pebble Beach Golf Course. Meanwhile Victoria and I looked at every single little rock. I think we went about two inches in about half an hour, there were so many rocks to look at(maybe we have a future geologist in the family:)).
We were all tired so we went back to the hotel and relaxed for the evening. Well, the kids did not do well sleeping in one room with us. So we were up from 2:30 on. We decided to do the aquarium and head home. So with a lot of coffee/caffeine we headed to the aquarium.
The aquarium was so much fun. We had a blast. Victoria kept saying fishy. Everywhere we looked there were fishys. Matthew and I looked at the Jellyfish which we both loved. I think Matthew and Victoria loved the penguins the most. They were really cute. We had lunch there and saw sea otters and seals playing in the ocean. Oh I love it up there. Alas the kids, Tom and I were tired so we headed out for home. Tom's parents and Tim decided to still stay another night. We arrived home safely with little fuss from the kids and have now gotten a great nights sleep. Hope you all enjoy the pictures.

Wendy