quick christmas recap

so christmas is long gone, i know. well, at least it's supposed to be by now! my decorations are still piled up in my foyer just waiting to be packed back into their boxes that are sitting in my frigid garage. and every time i find a stray christmas thing-a-ma-bob lying around the house (usually in the kids' room), i say to myself, "see!? it's a good thing that christmas wasn't all packed up yet!" i love to rationalize procrastination when at all possible. :) anyway... i have a truckload of christmas pictures that are so near and dear to my heart. we had a wonderful, low-key christmas this year. we got together with lots of family, loved our church's christmas eve service, and ate way too much as always. we celebrated jesus' birth and we hung our last ornament on our jesse tree. the kids racked up with 5,478 legos and several other varieties of blocks this year (last year was the year of the train. this year was the year of the blocks.), amelia celebrated her first christmas, and our tree did not fall over again. it was a good, good christmas weekend.

i could spend the next month sharing my favorite pictures from christmas, but considering it's already january 13, let's just get on with 2010, shall we?! here are my favorite favorites. if these leave you wanting to see more, by all means, click on over to my flickr page. there are two sets of christmas pictures: christmas 2009 and christmas day 2009.



amelia had enough of all those kisses...


the kids went shopping for presents for each other again this year. just another effort in our "think of others rather than yourself" campaign. when our kids hit the toy aisles, they are naturally drawn to toys they would like. (i know i'm not alone on that one!) so it took a few reminders to stay focused on their sibling's gift... but they got the point by the time we were finished shopping. ethan and caroline ended up being thrilled about the gifts they chose for each other and for amelia... though caroline really had her heart set on a few $40+ items for amelia! sorry kiddo! and ethan and caroline both amazed me by not even talking to the other one about the presents they'd bought! here they are wrapping their gifts...ethan's to amelia, and caroline's to ethan.



ok, my kids look super old in this picture. PLEASE STOP GROWING! and look how excited ethan was for caroline to open his gift!


we celebrated with my grandma, dad, and joy the weekend before christmas. ethan was overjoyed with his bat, ball, and glove. he and papa headed out to the front yard for some batting practice, and he did pretty well!


papa and grandma joy with our christmas baby!


the kids got these amazing magnet blocks. we laughed when caroline had them all stuck together at the top like this...


it did not take ethan long to figure out that a box of legos has a distinct sound. here he is with gram's present to him, and he has just discovered they they're legos.


after the year of blocks and legos, brian and i need a year of massage therapy. spending hours of quality time on the floor playing legos with your kids is a killer on your back!


God bless the trio blocks because they are not a choking hazard! caroline was not thrilled about amelia getting into her stash...


and it was finally christmas morning!

here is evidence that santa claus is not real: my laundry was still on my love seat when i woke up christmas morning!


as soon as caroline woke up on christmas morning, she was talking about baby Jesus. i loved it. we sang happy birthday to Jesus and blew out the candles.


ethan and caroline could not wait to dig into their stockings.... but they were incredibly patient for a little photo shoot first. (by now, they have given up even fighting it! ha!) this one may be my very favorite from christmas this year.


caroline either peeking into her stocking or hiding from paparazzi mama...


the face every parent wants to see on christmas morning! (and that face only cost me $1 from the target dollar spot!) :)


we headed over to nana and pappy's later that morning. the kids had more stockings to dig into.

the girls' stockings both have a little bear in a pocket, and every year the girls are excited to see these little bears!


caroline received the cutest little beauty shop set from nana, complete with a blowing hairdryer.


ethan and his long-awaited lego camper!


what a gift my sister-in-law is to me....


we could not resist giving pappy this duck hunter game... the duck flies around the room, and you have to shoot it down with the gun. the guys almost lost the duck a few times outside. it was pretty funny to watch the guys play with this.


mrs. brenda bought the girls pink converse hightops! caroline loves them.


karina was so proud of herself curling caroline's hair. she asked me how the curling iron worked, so i showed her how to use it--and then i exclaimed, "and LOOK! her hair is CURLY now!" :)


amelia with nana and mommy


the day after christmas, we traveled over to see brian's extended family. it is always a blessing and a blast!

uncle tom helped ethan with batting practice (the kids all went to the park with everyone while kristie and i had some sister-shopping time!!!!!). isn't this picture so precious?


four generations. priceless.


amelia finally met aunt pam and uncle tom. she didn't realize how nutty they are. but she'll learn soon enough!


the whole family. praise the Lord for family.


so that is our christmas in a very big nutshell. it took a little while to get used to the fact that christmas was over--maybe that was because we still had our decorations up! caroline kept asking to move baby Jesus, and until a couple of days ago, she was still wishing people a merry christmas. :) we had a wonderful new year's with dear friends... i hope i can blog about that soon. we're slowly getting back into our routine, though ethan was convinced we "weren't doing school anymore". amelia's birthday is next friday (!!), so that's the next thing we're getting ready for around here. we hope your christmas was a blessed one!