christmas 2010 highlights

We had a lovely Christmas this year! The kids picked out our tree all by themselves. I actually stayed in with Josie since the weather was seriously frigid. I was very proud of myself for releasing the need to pick the perfect, most proportionate tree. They all did very well in my absence! It was a good exercise in letting go!

On the 22nd, Mimi flew in on a little charter plane. She was sick with a cold but was still in good spirits.

Uncle Josh came in on the 23rd bearing many amazing gifts. He's a very good gift giver and seemed to rather enjoy spoiling us all. Here he is beaming with satisfaction as his gifts go over big. (Sorry the photos in the post are all terrible!)

Uncle Josh, my big brother.

For Simon, the big hit was the matching Spiderman gloves and hat, which he didn't want to remove until he started sweating.

Uncle Josh made Ella's dreams come true by gifting her the entire set of Narnia books.

We celebrated Christmas Eve at the church with a candlelight service. Ella was thrilled to read some of the Christmas story up on the stage although she was suffering from a rather nasty runny nose.

 

Christmas morning, we celebrated in our normal way. Bryan sat with the kids and told the story of Jesus' birth and the kids threw in their two cents as well. Then we opened our stockings. The kids were thrilled with all the little treasures, especially the new toothbrushes! I love that they get so giddy over Crest spin brushes. And of course, the large tin of m&ms which they've come to expect. We also gave Ella a Magic Tree House (Christmas in Camelot) book which was the only thing she asked for specifically this year. She was ECSTATIC to open it and had it read cover to cover within a couple of days.

We spent Christmas day with the Mowrey clan and had lots of fun eating and laughing and opening gifts. I'm still trying to find the room for all the kids' loot!

I promise we didn't let her actually eat candy canes.

Amidst the loot