Aftermath

A Collection of Smiles From Today

2nd Christmas (Because We’re Hobbits)

We are very fortunate people because we got to have THREE Christmases this year!  The first was our family Christmas on the Saturday morning before Dec. 25.  It was cozy and fun and filled with wonderful things, such as the LEGO set of Helms Deep, Bitty Baby twins (with matching outfit for Anna), an electric skillet for Greg (which we promptly put him to work using:)), and a history book for me, along with various other goodies. 

We played with our new toys over the weekend, and then on Monday, we packed up and headed to North Carolina to see Greg’s family.  His oldest brother’s family couldn’t make it, unfortunately, but it was so nice to see Gigi, Papa, Gramma, Uncle Chris, Aunt Jill, Jack, Tatum, and Hudson!  We had a lovely Christmas eve (see last post), and then on December 25, we had our second Christmas. 

Cousinly love.

Luke standing beside his giant present, and “Miss Thang” surveying the room.

Present opening!

Luke’s face when he opened his Aragorn set.

The sword.

The full kit (along with his Hobbit shirt from Jack).

This is Anna opening her Groovy Girls dolls.  She has had her eye on these things for months now.

More presents!

Anna was so excited to give Gramma the candle she had picked out for her.

And Luke was so amused that Daddy got some (chocolate) coal in his stocking.

Speaking of chocolate, Tatum was quite excited by her chocolate sucker (as were all the kids).

I think Jack’s presents were the biggest hits of the day.  He got the first two Harry Potter books from Gigi and Papa, which he has been reading voraciously, and we got him a Snap Circuit set.  Both he and Luke have been obsessed with it today.  I think we will be purchasing one for Luke in the near future!

It was a fun day, filled not only with presents and family, but also lunch with friends from church.  And of course, there was some downtime afterward, where some napped (Hudson), some read (Jack) and others watched Netflix on the iPad!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve 2013: A Pictorial View

We spent this Christmas eve with the Kirbys, and did some pretty traditional activities.  Among them were admiring the wonderful tree that Gigi and Papa had set up….

…especially the working Lionel train, which was set up around the edge!

There was also some time with electronics.

And time for family bonding.

And baking time…

And more baking time!

Baking sugar cookies is apparently a tradition:  here Anna is in 2010 and in 2013!

There was also the traditional “breaking of the rock with a sledgehammer to get to the quartz inside.”  Because that’s a thing, right?

And puzzle working.

And general cousin craziness!

Mission accomplished!

In the evening, Gigi gave a tour of the Christmas decorations, explaining the significance of many of them.

Then, the kids opened one present from Gramma Dottie.

They each got coin sorters, which they loved!

Sweet thank you hugs followed.

And this is what you get when you ask two boys to smile during their cookie-and-boiled-custard session (another Christmas eve tradition).

I think the pictures convey this without me, but just in case, let me say that it was a lovely Christmas eve, and we all enjoyed getting to spend it with family!