Christmas is all about family

I've been remiss in not posting about Christmas at our house.  It was so much fun.  We loved having all of our children home and enjoying talking to them and watching them talk to and play with each other.  That is a mother's joy, to see her children loving each other.  I also got to have a long conversation with my mother and my only living sibling, my brother Larry.  That was deeply satisfying, to connect with my family of origin (sounds so cold, but how do you say it?), too.  I wish we all lived closer.  I promised my mother that the next day I would post pictures and I'm sorry I didn't, Mom. I couldn't choose just a few and wanted to put up a slideshow, but I never figured out how to do that.  So, I'll just put up as many as I can so you can see the fun we had.  I took a lot of pictures and if I ever figure it out I'll send a slideshow, too.

Christmas Eve Josh grilled steaks for us-to order- and they were delicious.  Unfortunately, some of us including me had been sick all day.  I only ate a few bites of steak and of some lovely garlic mashed potatoes that Jen made.  But, don't worry, we saved the left-over steaks in labeled zip lock bags and I had mine two days later.  It was still delicious! Everyone was able to be at the Christmas Eve dinner, except Courtney, who was with her parents and family.  She joined us later and we had the sibling present exchange.  That was a lot of fun, as the kids saw what their siblings chose for them.  

Chelsea, finding out what her brother and sister in law thought she deserved!

Ooh, they like! Oh, and Chelsea is a ham.

Emma was feeling terrible at this point.

I also gave Bill something I typed up and printed on nice paper and framed with a frame that was already hanging in our house. Talk about recycling! Well, I just didn't feel well enough to go to the store.

He'd done something similar for me a few years back and I finally got around to sitting down to do it for him.  It's a lovely idea and I really loved the one Bill did for me.  Bill was getting sick that evening so I don't know that he appreciated it all that much then, but he did later.

The next morning I woke up feeling perfectly well, so I quickly finished wrapping presents and stuffing stockings (yes, I still do that for the girls) and we started unwrapping presents.  We had the kids go up the back stairs from youngest to oldest and come down the front stairs where we took our traditional Christmas morning on the stairs picture. Sadly Matt and Mir had not arrived yet so they weren't in the picture.  One year we'll get everyone in there! By then, Josh was feeling sick but he was heroic and came over Christmas morning anyway, although he ended up falling asleep on a couch before it was over.



Christmas Morning 2010



Matt's family, although Isaac is a little confused about which holiday we're celebrating.

I have a lot more pictures that I want to post from Christmas day, but I'll have to do that later. I hope all of you had wonderful Christmases, too.