Finally meeting Santa! We made it to the mall on Wednesday just to have a photo taken with Santa. Of course Logan had to make sure he asked for a train again as well. He'd already sent Santa a letter from school.
Uncle Jeremy with AJ.
Jeremy, Golda, Cory, Allie, me, and Shaun.
Uncle Trent with AJ.
Shaun serving himself some of our family's traditional Christmas Eve dinner- fish, perogies, homemade rolls, and borscht.
Kasey, our niece-dog.
Shane, Logan, Aunt Betsy, and Granddaddy (my dad).
"The other table."
Now with full tummies, chillin' with Kasey.
Writing a letter to Santa- it had to be a pre-thank you letter since he'd already sent the letter to Santa asking for the train and had seen him at the mall.
Playing Settlers of Catan, which I think we played two or three times. One of my favorites and everyone loves it!
Surprisingly natural- Aunt Allie with AJ. It was great how natural Allie was with AJ, especially since she's the sister who has declared long ago that she doesn't want kids. She was awesome! Of course all of the aunts and uncles were wonderful with AJ. I think when you hold a baby that young you can't help but love every moment.
Something we did growing up, as a family and with extended family, was to act out the nativity scene. I think this was the first time we'd all been together to do it again- my sisters and I. It was fun, and funny, and very touching. This brought back a LOT of memories for me.
Here's Logan, our toothless king- he represented all three kings bearing the gifts of gold, frankinsense, and myrh.
The angel (Betsy), Mary (Golda), and baby Jesus (AJ!).
Betsy's husband, Trent, decided we needed to include the "little" drummer boy and also played King Herod.
Baby Jesus, aka AJ, in his manger, aka car seat:
The three kings rejoiced!
A somber moment as the king visits Mary and Jesus.
Joseph, Uncle Cory, sits by the manger. Then Aunt Allie, an audience member tries to make AJ smile (it worked several times while she was here!).,
Not pictured: Uncle Jeremy, as the narrator. Audience members- me and my dad. Videographer- Shaun. Somehow the shepard, Shane, was also not picured with his sheep (snowmen). I don't think the camera person (possibly me) had a good angle to photograph them.
Here are Shane and Kasey all tired out at the end of the day:
After the kiddos went to bed, the adults played and put together Christmas presents.
Ok, so this is what I did while the others did stuff!
The brothers-in-law put together a fooseball table we'd gotten for the boys. Here they are in progress and at the end:
Here's what Aunt Golda did too:
Don't tell Logan but Aunt Betsy had to help Santa rearrange the presents under the tree and set up his Polar Express train! She (they) did a beautiful job!
Christmas morning:
Late afternoon, Shaun fries the turkey:
In-laws joined us for dinner:
AJ checks out his new swing:
Thanks to my sister Betsy for taking most of the photos while she was here. Unfortunately that means I don't have any photos of her holding AJ, which she did lots! She also changed lots of diapers! Wahooooo! Wow do I miss you all. :(
