A Few Christmas Highlights

Having awakened at 6am, Jack is currently conked out on my lap, making it difficult to type, but I'll do my best :)

Jack helping me make chocolate pies from scratch ~


SNOW on Christmas Eve!!! We had the first white Christmas this area has had since 1926!!!


Jack played in the snow for the first time ever. He didn't stay out very long though - he thought it was too cold and wet ~


Molly and Jack, with Beth in the background. She opted to remain indoors and lick the bowl from the chocolate pies ~


Simon LOVED Travis . . . a LOT. Travis loved Simon too! ~


Sus and Beth napping ~


Brain reading to Jack. Jack loved having male relatives around! I think all the estrogen in our house can get overwhelming at times ~


Helping Nona put the finishing touches on a quilt ~


Super Papa!!! ~


Spongebob pj's this year. Rob picked them out :) The kids loved them ~





A friend told us about a website that creates personalized messages from Santa. Sus and I created messages for each of the four kids. They were thilled to have Santa talk directly to them! ~


As usual, Papa read "The Night Before Christmas, In Texas That Is" ~


And "The Night Before Christmas" - a copy of the same version that Laney's family has read every Christmas for as long as they can remember (Papa was such a good sport about having grandkids climb all over him and play with his Santa hat) ~


Jeff (Travis' roommate), Sus and Travis ~


Rob, Molly, Brian and Kiki ~


Nona and Jack (Jack sort of bounced all over that night) ~


And we read a new book from Rob's parents that they sent especially to be opened and read on Christmas Eve :) ~


We finished with the scriptural account of Christ's birth - both from the Bible and the story from the Book of Mormon detailing the experiences of those living in the Americas. Jack found the scriptures very interesting. Kudos to Papa for managing to read it! ~


Nona made amazing quilts for each of the kids. Kylie's was pink (of course) with a cowgirl theme ~


Megan's was a green background with butterflies and cute little bugs on it ~


Beth's was Dora themed, with a purple fuzzy back. She refuses to sleep without it and even when she wakes up in the middle of the night and trots into our room, she drags her quilt and matching pillow in with her ~


Jack's was a "Very Hungry Caterpillar" quilt ~


Jack loved playing with Papa's blackberry ~


Christmas morning ~


The kids got lots of presents. I won't even try listing them all as I know I would forget some :) Here are a few of their favorites ~

Kylie got real cowboy boots with pink stitching from Molly and Brian and a pink cowboy hat from Rob and I (among other gifts). Another of her favorites was a handheld Leapfrog game. Kylie loves playing on the computer, so we knew she'd love that! ~


Beth got a plethora of Dora toys and loved each of them :) She wore her Dora Adventure Party dress-up outfit all day over her pj's ~


Megan's favorite presents included a real china teaset, a cookbook for kids (she is planning on making dinner one night a week - so far she has made pizza, which was delicious - for those on facebook, Molly posted pictures of her cooking), and a High School Musical book that Susie deemed "awesome!!!" ~


Jack got a dancing and singing car, a fireman's outfit (Rob worked as a firefighter for several years, so it was kind of neat to see Jack dressed as one), and a pirate ship (Travis's favorite toy growing up was a pirate ship, so that was sentimental as well) ~


Rob and I also got many wonderful presents. Rob's favorite gift was from Kiki and Ron. Ron managed to get a copy of one of Rob's favorite songs ever (Romany Rye by Albert Lee), which is not on iTunes. Rob has only listened to it about 100 times since opening it. My favorite was a tiny handheld video camera from Nona and Papa. I never remember to charge our big video camera and the videos my digital camera takes have no sound and don't come out very well unless the lighting is perfect. I will now be able to inflict not only pictures, but videos on all of you! :)