Christmas was a wonderful, lengthy event for us again this year. It started with our church’s Christmas program. Christian had an important split-role this year. He was one of the cousins as well as one of the shepherds. He had a lot more lines and movement to memorize this year, and he did great! Brandon did great as a shepherd this year as well. He’s the BEST at speaking loudly into the microphone. Alyson chose not to say any lines this year (neither did her buddy Madeline), but she was a beautiful angel.
Next we had Christmas dinner (a few days early) with Bill’s side of the family. The kids’ gifts from Grandma were the biggest hits. The boys each got a Rip-Stick (this is a crazy skateboard-like contraption that only has two wheels and probably says Age 10 and Up on the box, definitely requiring pads and helmets). I like this picture because this is the only way I’d ever be able to balance on the thing 🙂 Christian’s starting to get the hang of his now.
Grandma found Alyson this fantastic Dora jacket – she LOVES it.
Next in our Christmas tradition was Bake Day. We always enjoy the opportunity to spend more time with our Arlington family, and it’s a great warm-up to Christmas Eve. Alyson was a great sprinkler this year. She jumped up, ran over, and sprinkled cookies with great enthusiasm every time a pan was ready to sprinkle. The boys helped make peanut-butter balls (and by the end, Alyson had them making squares and pyramids instead of the boring balls). Here are the silly kids taking a break from all of the cookie-making.
Christmas Eve was next, where the kids were surprised with a fooz ball, pool, air hockey, table tennis, etc etc etc table that they have been playing nearly nonstop since we got it home! Alyson also got a really cute white soft fuzzy bear that lights up. It’s been a great nightlight for her. We made it to the 11pm candlelight service at church, and all three kids managed to stay awake. This is the first year Brandon was awake to hold a candle, and I think he enjoyed it.
Bill and I were up L-A-T-E getting the last Christmas morning surprises ready to go. We now have a band in our house! Here is the drummer:
And the guitarist and vocalist:
And here is the tired princess after a busy few days of Christmas.
We really enjoyed having Mom join us for Christmas this year. I think my favorite gift was my most surprising. Brandon chose to buy me the Mac game Lego Star Wars 🙂 I’m sure I missed some important highlights – feel free to comment on anything I missed. It was such a nice Christmas. I’m actually sad it’s over, but I’m very busy getting ready for another tax season.
Happy New Year to all!
