A Merry Little Christmas (Morning)

With Christmas falling on a Sunday this year, the usual routines were a bit altered.  However, the day still began with the line up and march to the Living Room to see what Santa brought.

Dennis is super excited about his new blue bath scrubby which blends perfectly with his blue shirt, but if you look carefully enough you can see the tag on it. That's good.  Otherwise it looks like he's just missing his gorilla buddies in the jungle.  Meanwhile, Diane is fascinated with Eric's new striped hat, and Eric just can't get over the thrill of having his very own head massager.

Toothbrushes, spatulas, all the usual fare.

 A little candy, yogurt and cheese were eaten from the stockings, then it's off to 9:00 am Sacrament meeting, which I might add, was great.  Beautiful program with scriptures, stories and lots of music.  Eric and I both got to sing in special group numbers as well as in the choir.  And it's just so fun to see all the ward members you love, on Christmas Day, all dressed in their Christmas best, greeting them with a  Merry Christmas, on Christmas!  Very sweet.

A few pictures while still dressed up.

What a beautiful couple.

Plus one.  Check out that nice Christmas tie Eric has donned.  It's his gift from the Philippines Devin sent last year.  So cool.

Mom came over for breakfast and gift opening.  It's so nice to have her nearby, I sure love her.

 

Love this guy!

OK, so sorry about this picture, but I just love a pretty holiday table and nearby decorations.  So despite the fact that the expressions on the faces were saying "we're hungry, let's just eat now" I'm posting this picture.  And don't worry, next time, I'll just keep on taking pictures until we get it right, now matter how hungry you all are!  But seriously, look at the gorgeous fruit plate the kids put together.  We also had overnight baked french toast and breakfast casserole.

At last it's time to tackle the gifts under the tree.  Eric is utilizing his new shaver well.  Everyday so far, sometimes twice.

The joys of gift giving and receiving.

A poofy coat! 

What a Merry Christmas.

A Merry Little Christmas (with the Schenks)

Christmas eve...visions of sugarplums and cousins and feasting and nerf battles and gifts, danced in their heads.

The requisite pj picture.  What good buddies!

Just missing Devin.



Glad to have Grandma Schenk home for Christmas this year.  Much nicer than having her in the hospital last year this time.



No pj's this year, instead the growing up girls got towels from Grandma Schenk.

No problem, they make great little skirts!



Beautiful girls.  Just missing Katie this year!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas is...

finally here!

Grandma Time!

I couldn't resist buying a few toys for Eleanor keep her entertained while visting.  She certainly entertained us while opening the packages!

She got a little baby and learned how to give it kisses.

I stayed home with Eleanor while the rest of the gang went skiing at Baker.  We had a really good day together.  Eleanor took the time to inspect my kitchen quite thoroughly.  At least the parts she could reach.

Little Miss Eleanor looked so cute in her new dress!  I think she liked her shiny black shoes too.  In fact she was dancing around in them so much it was hard to get a picture! Eric did a nice job letting her twirl and bounce to her heart's content.

The decorations were pretty snazzy this year at the Festival of Trees.  So many lights and color variations. 

And toys and candy.

 And Santa and Mrs. Claus too!  Adorable.

We had a girl's lunch at Seeds in La Conner.  Mmm, fish tacos and amazing desserts.

Eleanor kind of enjoyed the taste of lime.

She even tried sucking the juice from the straw.

 What a sweetie pie!

Ok, Cinderella, when you're all done sweeping the floors,

You can go to the Ball!

Grandpa was installing child locks to keep this little lady out of the garbage, and she was so fascinated watching him use those tools.

In fact, Grandpa has lots of cool tools. 

Katie wanted to be sure Eric got the chance to change at least one diaper.  It was quite a battle of wills between these two.  Who would believe a little 19 pounder could hold her own against this strapping teenager.  Well, she does!  It's quite a trick when she decides she's ready to turn and run!

There she goes!

At last!  Success!

We loved every minute with this cutie pie, and can't wait for her to come back!

Thanksgiving 2011

This Thanksgiving I wanted to focus on my family, not just the ones here with us, but every family member.  So I built a family tree which includes all 33 people, from my grandparents to my grandchild, and my siblings and their families.  It was fun to see the generations all together. 

I wanted to focus on the people that were not joined with us around our table so I wrote some of their names inside each place card.  Then at the beginning of dinner I asked everyone to learn about that person and share something about them before dessert.  It was sure fun to think of memories and share them.  I also learned more about my grandparents.  Just a side note here: my grandpa, Clarence Hart, was indeed held up by a bank robber and locked in the vault for 40 minutes.  Great story!  It's included in our Family History books my mom has carefully prepared for us.  Thanks mom!

With all the focus on family members not present, I unfortunately forgot to get a picture of those who were present.  I know, that's not really like me, I usually get everybody around a table and then create a big hubub trying to fit them into a tiny viewfinder.  Not so this time.  Everyone got to eat their meal in peace.  Sort of.  Well, we had a lot of people packed in this kitchen.  It was exciting though!

Besides Keith, Eric and I we had Josh, Katie and Eleanor, Richard, Diana and Michael, Paul, Wes, my mom, and also a cute family from our ward, the Heusers, Jamie and Max.  Their little boys are names Reef Gregory and Maximus Bear.  I just had to include that because their names are so awesome.

Those we were missing were Diane and Dennis, Devin, Denise and Larry and their kids (except Richard, we got him!) Larry and Christina, Pauls kids and Wes's daughter and her husband.  And my dad.  And my grandparents.  And that adds up to 33 people! 

Pre-dinner games.

I hear the competition was intense.

Michael was pretty excited to play some wii!

I had such great help this year.  Katie and Diana set tables and did the centerpieces and were basically available to help with whatever.  That certainly lowers the stress level! Keith and mom made rolls and we baked a lot of things at my moms.  That gave me room to bake some gigantic marshmallowed yams in and all over my oven. 
I made the "give thanks" banner this year and it's so cute, I think it won't be a one time deal.  Look for more banners at other events and holidays in the future.  Also, I used a pinecone, nut, tree theme.  It was sort of a fluke, but it worked out well with the whole family tree thing.

All in all, a great day!  Thanks family for being so great!
Ok, now that I have posted about Thanksgiving, I can decorate for Christmas.