Christmas Day

We woke up on Christmas morning- Vake was NOT happy that I slowed down getting him out of the crib in favor of snapping a Christmas morning shot...
Once we got up, though, he was in a GREAT mood.

Here's my little Christmas elf with his letter from Santa Claus, who encouraged Vake to work on walking and talking this year.

And Santa was so generous with everyone this year!

Here we are unpacking Vake's stocking.

Vake really liked the orange in the toe...

I had thought he was going to be more fired up about unwrapping packages- he was pretty uninterested. Oh well.

I do have to say that he is a total snugglebunny of a little boy- he is VERY into handing out hugs, especially to Daddy.

And of course, a holiday would not be complete without Dennis and Domingo!

Vake, who is a GREAT shopper, got his Uncle Dennis a Snuggie.

Here we are, opening presents and trying out new modeling poses...

One of Vake's favorite presents was a set of serving spoons. Go figure.

So now we're fast forwarding to dinner- I had one picture left on my memory card- and we were able to capture Eric's perfect holiday dinner! Yum!!! He made standing rib roast and individual Yorkshire puddings!

a KINDLE!!!

Super E got a Kindle for me for Christmas! So exciting! More and pictures later!

Christmas Eve Continued...

Hi there- it's Alison again- MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

As you can see, the house was a frenzy of baking and crafting this afternoon. Here are Anne and Louise working at decorating gingerbread men made by Eric- I don't think they turned out exactly the way E planned- oh well...
And here are the miniature Christmas trees that will be tomorrow's table decorations. The one closest to us in the picture is the one Eric did- apparently I am not the only crafty one in the fam!

And here's a picture of E's shortbread- took him two batches to get it up to snuff.

Here's the family before we went to the 4:30 church service. Suffice it to say that Vake is LOUD in a big vaulted church- everyone knew he was there and the highlight for us as parents was when he drooled on the 8 year old in the pew in front of us.

Am I getting shorter, btw? Or is it just that Vake is so big that I cannot stand up straight if I am holding him? E looks like a giant in this pic.

My little pumpkin tried one piece of shortbread before we went to church- it was delish.

How funny is this pic- V is sitting on the dining room table and you can see Stilly's nose hoping for a handout!

After church, we went to Grandmary's for dinner- Eric was the carver!

We loved getting some time with Aunt Anne and Uncle Denny!

When we got home, we put out some cookies, Chex Mix and scotch for Santa.

Oh Christmas Tree!

So with the advent (no pun intended) of our failed trip to the Pacific Northwest, Eric and I are trying to get the house whipped into a Christmas frenzy.

(Ok, perhaps that's overdue for a rephrase. Eric's holding on as best as he can while I make up for the fact that we did NO holiday decorating...)

So the first thing we needed was a tree. Look at my little holiday pumpkin who had to wear a H-A-T to go out in the snow.
Mommy, I WILL not smile for the camera.

Nope, not going to do it, no matter how many ridiculous things you and Daddy do.

He did think that SNOW was pretty interesting though!

Here's the sight that awaited us at Lowe's. Three trees. Each more pitiful than the last. We picked out the best of the bunch, we think.

It was so cold and so miserable that there wasn't even anyone in the Garden Center that I could corral into taking our family picture.

But Daddy took one of Vake and me and I took one of Dad and the tree.

When we got home, there were some nice people walking by who were happy to take a picture- what a happy family.

I'll follow up with pictures of the decorated tree later today!