Christmas 2015

We did a few things differently this year.
First – we put the Christmas tree in the family room and rearranged accordingly.

The second was that everyone FINALLY agreed to DO LESS.  There were so many fewer gifts this year and that was such a blessing in many ways. 

We still had princesses galore.  Because that is how we roll…

The boys got the same shirts from my sister as I had put in their stockings.  Okay.  One of the same. 

Marie got a blanket from Nene.

How to decide which dress to wear??

Mama and Daddy gave each child one gift under the tree and one in their stockings.  Katriel got her very own princesses.  She’s in the big leagues, now.

Johanna got the sleeve of princess Barbies.  (As I am just putting this blog together on 2/1, I can tell you she has only played with them twice.)

Tab was elated with her Lego set.  She received 4 on Christmas and spent 7 hours assembling them on Christmas Day.

Marie was speechless with her iPod Nano.

Nigel got a Lego set, as well.

Stewart got a new engine for his motorbike.  (Which, ahem, still didn’t solve the problem.)

Each girl had another dress with her stocking.

And Marie got a case for her iPod.

The boys each had a t-shirt rolled into his stocking.

John gave me a treasure map that led to this beautiful piece of wall art.

Tab’s dinner.
Really.
The rest of us had prime rib.

Christmas Eve

The weather was crazy-good.  Short-sleeves and bare legs were a treat.

I am so blessed.  They rock.
With more food than necessary, we enjoyed our long-time tradition of Christmas Eve festivities with our friends, the Brookses.  More like cousins than friends, it’s nice to see the girls, especially, get to catch up on holidays. 



We were also honored to have our friends, the Hoyts, join us this year. 

We had a difficult time getting a photo of all the kids.  Anna was having none of it.  (We are kind of scary…)
Later we grabbed a photo of the Brookses and Butler’s moms and kids.  We forgot to put our wreath up this year, so we have that family portrait reflecting the hanging lamp to look at.  Oy.

This was 2008.

We then went to church for a beautiful candlelight service, and then to the Hoyt’s for a smorgasbord of more food. 

Yum.

Christmas Adam

I can’t find the photos my mom and sister sent me from their annual Christmas Adam sleepover with the kids…

All six kids went over for day-time fun, and the oldest 5 slept over.  They ate treats, watched movies, played games, and took selfies.  John and I used the time to cook and wrap.  We picked up Katriel at 5 for some mall fun.

I think she got a mouthful of mustard.

I got my twice-a-year-treat:  food court Chinese.  Yum.

We took a spin on the carousel.  She picked a horse on the upper level; but then when it started to move and she waved down to daddy she got a little nervous.

We had fun poor out attention on just one little girl.  She ate it up, too. 

At the mall…

We squeezed in a wee bit of Christmas fun tonight.  Around 3PM we piled in the car, picked up Tab’s sweet friend, and headed to the mall.  The littest two met Santa where Johanna told him she’d like a dog.  A plastic dog.  “That’s all I want.” 
Heh.  News to my ears. 

I confess I don’t exactly know what my little ones think of Santa.  He shows up in the Rudolph movie, but not in too many of our conversations.  We’ve certainly never suggested he invades our house every 12/24.  But I don’t recall ever having a heart-to-heart about him.

After that we poked around the toy store for a few minutes. 
This is the conversation I heard as I followed Tab and her friend around:
Hal: let's find the girl aisle
Tab: look for the pink
Hal: that's how you know
Tab: yeah it's better...