While I'm totally enjoying the sunshine and totally avoiding finishing up an assignment for one of my classes, I figured it was time to post the photos I wanted to share from Christmas.
We had a lovely day, once we got up and going. The kids assembled on the stairs, reminiscent of what my sister and I had to do when we were young and had to wait for our dad to set up his camera (or put finishing touches on something?).
We dove into our stockings and then opened our presents. Samuel got Schlock Mercenary books as his biggie gift, Moriah got something she's been hoping for (see photo below) and Susannah got Fake Uggs (FUGGS) and juggling sticks. The babes got some imaginative play-type stuff, including food and a baby doll high chair. The babes also got some dress up clothes from grandparents and *loved* looking like their favorite princesses (Abigail as Sleeping Beauty and Bethany as Cinderella).
Jim and I scored some gifts, too. Jim always finds fun stocking stuffers and this year's funniest (to me anyway) were my huge paper clips and my biodegradable corn pens. Jim got some pogies from me. What are pogies, you ask? Well, they are these large mitten-like things you can attach to your handlebars to keep your hands warm while winter biking. Now that we're almost three months past Christmas, I can tell you that they have not quite been the gift I had hoped they'd be (he did like them, though!). Mostly because this year hasn't been super cold. Maybe he'll get more use out of them next year?
I got yet another alien collectible from my sweetie. It's a little alien ship that you can wind up and send zipping off into...space? I wonder how many aliens I've gotten over the years...close to 15 I imagine. This is a hold-over from our days when we were X-Files fans. The truth is out there....
Here is a video of Susannah playing with her juggling sticks, Moriah displaying her jersey, Samuel absorbed in a book and the babes playing with some toys. The video had to be cut a bit to fit Blogger's less-than-100MB requirement so it's a little choppy--my apologies for that. (the clutter behind Susannah is our pitiful recyclables/reusable bags storage area...nice and messy!)
By the end of the afternoon, we had amassed a fair amount of happy clutter (as seen in the video as well) and were heading into dinner time. We invited a couple new to Girdwood to Christmas dinner and were so glad we did. We had a blast with Scott and Jenn and swapped memorable gift and nightmare stories. Sounds strange, but it's true, and there was a fair amount of "we laughed so hard we cried". We ate, we talked, we laughed and then we ate some of Jesus' birthday cake (after we sang to Him, of course). The dinner was a wonderful ending to a blessed day and the start of a wonderful friendship with Scott and Jenn.
Even this far out from the actual day, I can remember well the relaxed, joyful day we had. It was especially fun to see the babes come into full awareness of presents and ask for more. And more. Thankfully, that didn't last long and they settled into playing with the toys they received. Wonder if they'll want to make an actual list next year?
