Christmas Day

Santa visited last night, and only ate the Oreo middles!  He nibbled on cheese and carrots, too.

He left a Wii Fit for the children

Pop found a new hat in his stocking and tried to wear it "Mark" style

After spending the morning with Baba and Pop, we joined these guys for dinner and games -

it was a very, merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve tradition is to go to church and come home and open one gift - pajamas.

Baba joined us for church and gift opening, but then she went home to get ready for Santa!

AJ received the ever-popular Hannah Montana PJ's

Sydney wore her new dress for the first time

Notice Bailey's recurring theme of penguins

Pajama bottoms and undershirts - what a surprise!

Perfect fit!

Jackson's visit with Santa

Jackson went to see Santa, and Aunt Emily reports he was very brave!

Beautiful treats

We arrived home to a treat at the front door this evening. Aren't these cookies beautiful? I thought they looked a little too pretty to eat. They were accompanied by a jar of homemade apple butter. Don't you just love Christmas?

Little visitors

I know that the kids get bigger every day, but it really hits home when we're around little ones. They love to be around small children... I think it gives them an excuse to pull out all the old toys that they used to enjoy. Logan and Elizabeth came to visit today, and our four kept them occupied while their parents got a little time to relax. Our first foray into babysitting! Logan loved Cal's jersey and cap. When it was time to leave, he looked like he wasn't going to give them back. Mom's quick reminder about sharing made him happily take them off and hand them over to Cal. It seems like yesterday that our kids were this small!

David's Birthday

Tonight we celebrated David's birthday at Red Robin.  Happy 8th birthday, David!

Here's the whole gang.

Bailey and Adam - he's not a baby anymore!

Duncan and AJ

Gingerbread houses

I'm trying to let go of the fact that the decorating, shopping, cards, etc... are all not done. Instead, I'm determined to enjoy the pleasures of the season with my family and friends.  And it's working! I let the girls make a total mess tonight WHILE WE HAD COMPANY! We worked on gingerbread houses with Alli (sister of newlywed Chris - she was taking a break from studying for exams) and Emily.  Doug and Ella were there, too, but they were no help at all.

Tattoos

One gal at the reunion had this awesome tattoo of KISS. Notice that each letter contains the face of one member of the band. Her brother is a tattoo artist - what talent! She had a cool photo on her phone of herself displaying her tattoo while standing with Gene Simmons! Three friends and I dressed as KISS for Halloween a few years ago, and we won first prize. Suddenly I'm wondering if I should get a tattoo...

Reunion

My 20th year reunion was Friday night.  I was pretty nervous - my memory is horrible.  But they published a list of those who were planning to attend, and I took my yearbooks back with me to study, so I felt pretty prepared. Mark went, too, and most of the folks there thought he was the official event photographer. He took photos of EVERYONE! We had a great time, and it was really cool to see these folks again after so long. I was told I still look the same, which either means I'm aging well or I have really bad hair!

Thanksgiving

We haven't been home to RI for Thanksgiving since we've had kids. It's too far and too much traffic. But with my reunion being on the Friday after Thanksgiving, we've had this trip planned for a while. We took the kids out of school Monday and Tuesday and made a whole week out of it. We stayed with Sue and Chris, but Dave and Emily hosted Thanksgiving dinner. We gave Jackson a Fisher-Price Garage for Christmas, but he liked the box it came in just as much. He makes that little "Oh" face all the time!

Happy Birthday, Ella!

It's hard to believe that Ella is one already! Check out the progression from princess to total mess...

Do you think this sign is as funny as I did?

All I Want for Christmas...

...is my two front teeth!