Christmas Presents

I hope you all have had a very merry Christmas.  We certainly have!  Naturally I have a great many pictures of the event.  I have compiled them in several collages.  You can click any one to see the itsy bitsy pictures better.  

We begin with the countdown to Christmas:  I let the candle burn all the way down.

Now we'll skip straight to the kids, cause let's face it: they're the cute ones.  Of the presents they're holding, many are family gifts that the girls just opened.  I particularly love Sabrina's pose with the "Polkatonics" CD.  (That's the second one down on the right.).  Sabrina was most excited about the puzzles and pattern games she got from Santa, as well as dress-ups for her Build-a-Bear she got for her birthday.

Lizzie got a scooter, a Build-a-Bear (to gradually collect clothing for), and a jewelry box from Santa.  She also got a little bitty FurReal Friends puppy that wags his tail and moves his head when you pet him on the back.  She really wanted the deluxe version (the Go-Go Puppy), but the puppy "will do".

Check out Kate's face in the middle here!  She could not believe Santa had brought her a ukulele!!!  She learned a little bit on the uke in school and loved it.  Hers is a nice one and it's PINK!  Pictures later of her first ukulele lesson and video of her first performance. She also got the most deluxe of all art sets (well, not literally), including pastels and paints, and all that good messy stuff.

Proof I was there too.  I got to unwrap a bunch of great new kitchen things.  A lot of these are things that have been "on the list" for some time now, and  black Friday was an ideal time to buy them.  I also got a cute pair of boots I'm excited about!

Michael got to open the Black Friday spoils from Home Depot -- some screwdrivers, measuring tapes, power tools, etc.  I also got him a digital picture frame already loaded with hundreds of pictures that he can take to work.  There are pictures from each of our childhoods (a few at least), one or two from when we were dating (the only ones we know of in existence), and some engagement / wedding ones and naturally plenty since then  It was a fun (and time consuming!) job getting them all ready for the frame.

Michael would like me to point out that he actually got more pictures of me with my tongue sticking out than I got of him.  Apparently when I feel silly as the center of attention (as in, opening presents in front of a camera) I tend to stick my tongue out.  Good to know.

Here are group shots with the girls in The Line (you know there has to be a picture of The Line) and their awe inspired glee at the new television.  They had SUCH a fun morning!

This evening we went to my mom's house for dinner (a nice drop-by-when-you-want-and-I'll-feed-you affair).  My brother was there and gave Kate some tips on playing her new ukulele which of course she had taken with her.  He taught her how to read chord charts and how to find the chords for a primary song (they're written in above every song).  Then she came down and performed "Reverently, Quietly" with 4 whole chords in it! 

Video of Kate:

Here are a few assorted pictures from the evening.  Of course I have to take pictures of Sabrina with her favorite younger male cousin.  He is so cute, and the two of them together have such a stark contrast.  We need to throw cousin Abby in the mix with her red super curly hair just to show the full range the family covers!  The picture of an envelope on the top left reminds me of a birthday card one of the girls got once.  It was signed by a woman who had been married some 40 years and she signed it with her maiden name accidentally!  I admit, I've done the same thing at random times, but I've only got 10 matrimonial years behind me so I'm totally off the hook, right?  The Family Tree is really cool (and I thought it was really cool that I happened to have a perfect size frame in my closet!).  It goes from my mom (top left) all the way to Adam (bottom right).  That's the Adam and Eve fellow.  You know, lived in a garden, ate forbidden fruit... that guy.  My sister made these and had them printed for everyone in our family.  It makes the years seem so short to see all those generations on one page!  We have some awesome family names in there too including a man named Frodi.  I guess that's why we tend towards hairy toes.  The last picture is just one I snapped as we were leaving.  Looking into the perfect postcard view of a happy home full of family and love.

So after all that... from our house to yours:  

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!