Christmas at Grandma Choo Choo's

Playing spoons!

We finished out our holiday-palooza at Grandma Choo Choo's house on December 26th. We had brunch, opened gifts, an early dinner and our annual game of spoons (where some of us obtained injuries due to overcompetitive players....yes, you Tom!)

Merry Christmas to us

Bedtime: 11pm Wake up: 7:05 am
7:25am

7:30am

The beast finally rises at 7:40am

Hip hip hooray!! It's finally a DS!

"I got the blue one!"

Pearl pink for the princess of the family

Spicy red for the hot tamale

"AHHHH...I got my doll! See Mom, I wasn't on the North Pole

naughty list!"-Emmy

A new Fancy Nancy book to enjoy

A new game with Super Hero's

A cool art set

The newest Diary of a Wimpy Kid book

Ella's favorite: Velma Gratch and the Way Cool Butterfly

How we spent most of our day...

Santa brought the outfit..the doll STILL has no name!

Mid-morning and Henry is DONE!!

Dear Santa,

Our plan worked perfectly! When the kids opened up their DS games and the American Girl outfit they were so confused!! "But we don't have DS systems Mom!", they yelled. "But I don't have an American Girl Doll", Emmy cried. As I held back a smile, I sighed and reminded them that you may have made a mistake-maybe you meant to leave the systems but instead left the game. There were potential tears and silence.........then Ella opened up her first gift and as you can see all became right in the world.

Merry Christmas!

Thank you for playing along! It make for a suspenseful morning!

Christmas Eve

David gets the honor of reading the Christmas story from Luke

this year
Cool new p.j.'s

Liv dolls and a new 4 musketeer Barbie

front: Jessica, Jason, Tim, Dave

back: Jenny, Pat, Dad, Tom, Me

Fiona, Emmy, Avery (looking at the tree), Addison, Berlyn

Michael, Ella, and Peris

Merry Christmas Eve 2009

at

PaPa and Grandma Pat's house

The Pickle

Begging the winner for the pickle
Ella is our winner for 2009

Searching....

False alarm....she didn't find it!

Fiona has been learning about family traditions at school, and she thought we should institute the pickle. Her friend Daniel's family hides a green pickle ornament on their tree and whomever finds it first gets to open up their presents first on Christmas morning. Derek, being the rockstar Daddio that he is, found the pickle ornament while shopping for a birthday present so the new tradition began this year. Without telling the kids, I hid the pickle in the downstairs tree; on the 23rd we shared with the kids that the pickle was on the tree. They had to put their hands behind their backs (Fiona's rules) and call out "pickle, pickle" (also all Fiona) when they found the ornament. It didn't take long for someone to find it-can you guess who?

Visitors

Uncle Dave opening his gift
Carrie's new Vera bag from Grandma Choo Choo

Carrie's "s" gift...socks

Dave's "s" gift..soup

Peris opens the first box

Then Michael

Next comes Ella

It's getting smaller for Fiona

and Emmy opens.......a new Wii game!

On Christmas Eve afternoon Uncle Dave and Carrie stopped by to see us for a little bit before church. Since they can't make it back down for our holiday with Grandma Choo Choo, we held their gift exchange here at our house. The kids opened a gift, we chatted, and then it was off to Eastview for the 5pm service.

"Hogwarts" Express

Officially introducing our new "Hogwarts" (Chevy) Express...no it doesn't fit into our garage and yes we know how big the gas tank is!!

As soon as Ella saw the Express logo on the back, she fondly christened the van in honor of her most beloved fictional school (Harry Potter's school for all of you muggles)! Now if I could only figure out how to cast a spell that would keep the gas tank full!!

Wingardeum fill-er-upso...

Christmas Break Day 1

Heading to sled

Day one of break was a success!!! We started off doing some screens (computers, gameboys, wii) and then moved on to coloring sheets and little crafts. After our adventure to Jersey Hill the night before, we headed out to Grandpa Kirk's house for some more sledding fun. Unfortunately the snow had melted just enough to make sledding impossible, but true to Story form we made our own fun!!