We spent Sunday afternoon with the Ziter family for a Christmas lunch and celebration. James and Nataliya were gracious hosts.
The Sill family brought their Guesstures game. It was fun to see how creative the kids were with their actions.
Christmas morning ... we told the kids they weren't allowed to wake us up until 7:30. Olivia somehow construed that as 7:00 to 7:30 so they were in our room right at 7:00. We held them off for awhile. I made them sing Christmas carols for me while Ed got up to start a fire, turn the tree lights on and make coffee! Then, it was time for the annual pre-gift photos - one nice and one begging to go open the presents!
Tonight was the Dykes family Christmas party, with special guest Santa making an appearance. Asher was apprehensive about going to anyone except his mom or dad until Olivia arrived. Then he only wanted his Livi. It was cute to see them together.
Asher didn't know what to make of all of the Santa hoopla.
Harrison liked this Santa, particularly his magic tricks with the rope and checking green lights from the kids' ears to see if they have been good this year. Keira was quite concerned when Santa didn't check her ear! Harrison was thrilled to receive the Club Penguin game that he has wanted for his Nintendo ds.
Olivia got cozy flannel pajamas and a yo-yo set.
Asher was not happy about visiting with Santa, but he did like his gift of a truck and books.
Eisley got a rabbit that plays music.
She was mostly interested in attacking it with her mouth!
Nom Nom Nom ... teething hurts! She was so funny to watch.
Flying baby Ally-kins.
The first good storm of the season hit last weekend. Olivia and Harrison had fun playing in the backyard most of Sunday. It was perfect snow for packing ... heavy and wet. Their snow man is still standing guard over the yard.
Now that Maddie has completed her months of physical therapy for her injured Achilles, she wanted to do something active but the doctor said no soccer for at least 2 years or else she'd be in a cast because of the stress on her ankle. She recently joined a hip-hop dance class with her best friend Nikki and their dance studio had a Christmas Recital on Saturday. Here are Mad and Nikki modeling their fabulous 80's inspired dance costumes.
Despite the snowy roads, Mad got lots of family support from Denice and Eisley, Deb, Grandma, Mom, Olivia and Harrison. Ed was even able to sneak away from work long enough to see Maddie's class perform. Maddie did great, especially considering the only dance class she ever took prior to this was a little community ed class when she was 3.
My wonderfully talented and thoughtful cousin Nichole volunteered to set up a mini photo studio at the family Christmas party last weekend and did a mini-session for each family. She got a darling photo of each of our most precious gifts.
Harrison is the toughest to photograph because of his automatic camera smile that magically appears whenever the lens cap comes off. I stood next to Nichole and talked to him while she shot away. This is actually a fairly natural smile from him because he was laughing at his mom.
Sweet little Livi bug. She's always so photogenic. She really did just get a haircut last week. She is growing her hair out again so she can donate to Locks of Love for a second time. Olivia has a very good heart.
Maddie is so comfortable in front of a camera, Nichole was able to just shoot away as Maddie responded to the peanut gallery in the room. I laughed when I looked through her photos because the facial expressions are so varied. Mad has grown up so quickly - 13 1/2 already!
