Christmas break was kicked off with pajama day and school parties for my 3 elementary-aged kids. When kindergarten kids are rotating through the cookie decorating station, there's really just no way to keep them from licking the icing off the knife, better to just plan on one knife per child!
Nana and Papa came to visit. I love this picture of my oldest deep in thought over chess with his Papa!
I will forever remember this Christmas as the Christmas of Lego. My 5 year old son loves them so everyone got him a set. He was a madman determined to build each one right away and was so focused to finish, we had to force him to stop building long enough for meals!
A Christmas Eve morning family football game in the front yard with everyone in their jammies - priceless moments!
The football spectators:
Christmas Eve was "Family Day" for us, the 1 year anniversary celebration of the day we became a family of 6 after arriving back in the U.S. with our Ethiopian daughter. It was beautiful summer weather for "Family Day" so we headed to a a park for some fun.
Getting ready for the pedal boats!
My husband pulled a fast one on me. The plan was to split up 3 and 3 in the boats with each adult having 2 kids with them, but at the last minute before my boat left, my husband decided our 5 year old son would be better off in my boat then by himself in the back of the boys' boat.
Before I even understood what had happened there I was with the 7 year old, the 5 year old and the 4 year old, and only me really able to reach the pedals.
Meanwhile, here's my husband's boat with the fully competent 9 year old son able to share the 30 minutes of pedaling:
It's okay, I got a good workout and the kids had a blast and all begged to do pedal boats again someday! That may just become our annual "Family Day" tradition!
We went to Christmas Eve church where we had 4 kids with candles and no hair igniting experiences - only God could orchestrate that! Then the kids got to open an early gift -- new jammies! Please tell me they'll still happily wear matching jammies when they are all teenagers!
We always make homemade donuts on Christmas morning, I look forward to them all year!
Little Girl got a new pink bike to replace the rusted boy bike she's been riding. She was super excited! So funny that she stuffed a doll in the front carry pouch!
The weekend after Christmas we took a day trip to Sea World to get some more use out of our 1 year passes. It was really fun to see the holiday versions of the shows! Check us out in our winter gear - quite a difference from the shorts we were wearing on Christmas Eve!
Just yesterday my 9 year old son summed up Christmas this way: "The first best thing about Christmas is Jesus being born. The second best thing is the Madden Football Wii game I got. And the third best thing was Nan and Papa visiting!"
We are tremendously blessed indeed!
I can't tell you if they will want matching pj's but if I didn't get pajamas for Christmas Eve for my 20 year old daughter she would be sorely disappointed.
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ReplyDeleteYüz Germe
Loved reading and seeing pictures of your "Christmas in Review". Looks like you had great times and built wonderful memories. I did like finally seeing you in a couple of the pictures--it's so important to record ourselves as part of the fun. Too often, moms are the ones taking the pictures and, years later, you wonder what you looked like at the time. You have a beautiful family. Oh, and congratulations on your first anniversary as a Family of 6. What a great gift indeed. (We are a Family of 4, as of 12/12/08, though we arrived home from Guatemala on 12/20/08.) Finally, just wanted to say that I love the jammies; my daughter and son have the same pink/blue ones.
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