Christmas 2008

This year we had a beautiful(and irritating) white Christmas. There were big fluffy snowflakes and treacherous roads. The kids missed school most of the week before Christmas vacation, and I was unable to get around to get all of the things done that I had wanted to. Class parties were missed. Traditions like going to town to see the big tree were put off until next year. However it did end up being a wonderful Christmas. The kids were able to keep a nice balance between being excited and going crazy. Paul unexpectedly got the whole week off, so that was a big help too. We were so thankful to be together and to be in our nice warm home, and that we only lost power for about an hour on Christmas eve. We tried to have a low key and relaxed holiday.

On Christmas eve we decorated cookies for Santa.

Our kids traditionally get to open new jammies on Christmas eve. This year I just made them some sleep pants, and we gave them each a new book, so that they could read if they were having trouble going to sleep that night.

Paul got the "pleasure" of having his traditional Christmas eve sleep over with the kids, so he could prevent them from getting up too early. They woke him up at 3 and 4 and then they finally convinced him to get up a little before 6. They all got big new lego sets from Santa, and a few things from us.I can't believe how excited Fuller was to get new socks!

Once the presents were all opened everyone cleared themselves a spot and began building with their new legos. Paul cooked us aebelskivers and bacon for breakfast, and then we dragged the kids away from all of their new stuff to go spend the rest of the day at my parent's house. At their house we had lots of relatives to play with, presents to open, and more delicious food than we could possibly eat.

Rowan still thinks the only way to interact with Uncle Jim is to attack him and climb all over him.

Grayson was really trying to out shine all of us. He picked his outfit out the night before and fixed his hair and everything. He really wanted to look nice on Christmas.

Grandma and Grandpa really came through for Fuller this year! It was a dream come true.

I can't believe we got a picture where everyone looks half way decent!

My sister and her family made a last minute decision to come to Oregon on Christmas, we're sure glad they did. It was really fun to have them here, but after the driving conditions they had to deal with I'm not so sure they thought it was a good idea.

Aunt Enid shared one of her family's English Christmas traditions, of poppers. She had to help the kids get their paper crowns right first.

Here's my folks with all of their grandchildren. My poor mom is now almost shorter than most of them.

And since then we've pretty much all just been channeling our inner rock star.
I'm sad to say that the Christmas cards never did get mailed, or written. Maybe I'll work on them on New Years Eve or something. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!