Christmas Memories

Our Christmas started on Christmas Eve. We went to my brother Kevin's church for their 6:00 service.
The 4 younger kids were in their Christmas finery.

Trace and Ross joined the mix with their non-Christmasy attire. It wasn't their fault; I didn't buy them anything to wear. Emma has lost her shoe and is totally unhappy with the posing.

After the service we went to Kevin and Janne's house where we taped our Christmas message on their staircase. It was a potluck appetizer shindig and I brought my Spinach Artichoke Dip. It was quite the hit-- there was none left at the end of the evening. It was a full house with Kevin's family, Janne's sister's family hence Kevin, also known as Kevio, volunteering to video us. (I thought they all might think it was weird that we did that but everyone was totally into it.) My parents were there, my brother Rick and his 2 kids, and Janne's parents and Kevio's parents. After we grazed extensively we moved to the music room and listened to the kids all play Christmas piano solos and sang Christmas carols.

After we got home the 4 younger kids opened one present.

They all had Christmas jammies to wear. This was a new thing for us. I had heard of other people doing this and thought it would be fun. Emma seems to disagree.

Then it was off to bed and waiting for Santa. There was some disagreement as to when we would get up to open gifts. The girls wanted as early as possible preferably around 7:00 am. The older boys wanted to sleep and preferred 9:30. I split the difference and said 8:00 but changed it to 7:30. The girls entered my bedroom promptly at 7:30 but the babies weren't up so I told the girls they had to wait, while I lay in bed dozing, of course. At 7:45 the babies walked in looking like little zombies and the girls swore they didn't have anything to do with their waking. We moved downstairs, roused the boys from their slumber and they emerged from their man cave, aka the basement.

Trace was still waking up.

Ross was pretty low key.

Emma was diving into the excitement.

Ryan was overwhelmed by it all. He and Emma got this castle from Santa, although Emma could care less about it.

Jenna got Baby Alive, a baby who eats and drinks and poops and pees 'cause there's not enough of that flying around this house. Well, not literally flying, although if it were to happen I wouldn't be all that surprised.

Emma got a baby of her own to love on.

And she and Ryan got tricycles from Santa. Emma's is pink and purple and Ryan's is a Harley Davidson. But something strange has happened over the course of a day...

They've switched trikes. Ryan prefers the pink tricycle (much to Ross' consternation) and Emma hops on the Harley. Trace thinks that the Harley suits Emma better, since she's so much more aggressive than Ryan.

This is another new baby that Jenna got from Grandma. She swims.

Jenna tried her out in the tub tonight and requested to bathe alone with her, meaning no live babies in the tub.

Ross playing golf with the family's new Wii.

Trace is offering moral support in the form of heckling.

Julia's very happy with her new pink iPod. The girl never hears me now. How come she gets her own little world???

That's okay because I got my own. I'm sequestering myself in my room for the next few days and watching a marathon of Lost episodes. The kids can all fend for themselves!