How we spent our Christmas

If you don't want to see a boatload of images, turn back now!

You know I have a hard time narrowing down my images.  So in my attempt to share them all and reduce the overload a bit,I thought I would try to create some storyboards (which is still very new to me and the reason for the delay in sharing them.)

Now on to the day...which started very early.  At 06:00 Baba woke me up so I could get dressed and ready my camera.  At 06:10, the sound of feet could be heard emerging from someone's bedroom.  Enter Madeline, who graciously was willing to watch a show on TV while we waited for her brother to wake up.  At 06:15, we heard a very loud "Merry Christmas!" and in entered said brother.  Oh well.  By 06:17, the process of unwrapping had commenced.

The dumplings had made a few requests: legos, roller skates, clocks for their rooms, a baby doll, and a pedometer (for Caleb.  How cute!)  And just like the night before, Caleb quickly set to work on one of his lego sets.  Madeline got to work too.

Late morning found the arrival of my sister, Andy, their munchkins and Andy's parents, Phil and Marsha.  When Caleb opened his roller skates earlier, he had commented that we forgot his elbow and knee pads.  In actuality, his cousins had him covered.

Leah scored a cute pair of shoes.

My sister got a shirt we picked up while in NYC earlier this month (and a cookbook.)

Then it was off to Disney Vero for a delicious buffet.  The kidlets watched cartoons while we waited to be seated.

Josh got a little bit of love from all his adoring fans.

After a delicious and belt busting meal, the kids let out some steam by running around outside on the resort grounds.

This year they were roaring dinosaurs.

My sister and I had fun capturing each other capturing the kids.

And she (gasp) even managed to capture a shot of the four of us.  Yay!

We walked over to the beach.

And the fresh salt air found Patrick growing some new hair.

The kids managed to snooze on the drive back to the house, which meant they had plenty of more energy to burn off.

After eating some ham and Texas "caviar" (when we weren't even hungry), we sang Happy Birthday to Jesus  because my sister helped me salvage the butter cream frosting for His birthday cake.  Thank you, Deb! lol

I'm so thankful that my sister lives within driving distance so our kidlets can spend the holidays together.  I'm thankful for family and extended family.  And I'm thankful for God's love and grace and the gift of His precious Son!

I hope you all had a wonderful and merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Before I share the unwrapping of presents on Christmas Eve, I thought I would share these two snapshots.  I spent the better part of the last week baking in the kitchen: rolls, bran muffins, oatmeal bread, caramels, cookies, monkey bread, and birthday cake for Jesus.  Yep, I lost track of how much butter, sugar, eggs, and flour I went through.  Anyway, one afternoon Caleb was playing the Wii in the school area, which is right off the kitchen (woot), and I just had to steal this moment.  Gosh, I love that boy!  

And then throughout all that mixing and chaos, I did manage to snap a photo of my eager beaver little helper.  She even gave up playing outside to help me with the cookies.

So Christmas Eve afternoon, we headed to church for service.  And then we drove over to my sister's in-law's house. All of the extended family gather together on Christmas Eve and exchange gifts.  My brother-in-laws Aunt, Uncle and cousins were also there.  So we had 6 precious little ones and a bunch of big kids grownups to tear into presents.

My brother-in-law's father, Phil, is a retired post man.

Oh, and yes you're seeing that right...the presents spilled out from under the tree and into the next room!

Wrapping paper went flying everywhere. And although she took her sweet time, Ashtyn successfully opened her presents.

There was lots of pink and sparkles since the girls outnumbered the boys 4-2.

This was one of many bags filled with wrapping paper.

Caleb got a Lego set and immediately began putting it together.

Just as we were thinking that we should be heading home (it's an hour and a half drive), Patrick noticed that one little munchkin was missing, yet he thought he heard something in the bathroom.  Well, wouldn't you know that little Ashtyn managed to lock herself in there!  She was completely unrattled as the men figured out a way to pry the lock open.  Oh, what a way to end the night!

After the long drive home, we spread our own gifts under the tree.  This little reindeer was a gift tag/ornament  my sister made me last year.

I'll be back with the photos from Christmas Day in a separate post.  We celebrated from waaay before sun up to well after sundown, which translates to a lot of fun and a ton of images.