Christmas 2010

Christmas 2010, in pictures:

Getting our tree, December 4

Enjoying the inaugural fire in our fireplace, Dec. 14, just before we hosted my church's missions committee Christmas party.  Even though our new house is 12 years old, the fireplace had never been used.

The kids meet Santa at Katie's preschool Christmas celebration, Dec. 21.  Santa asked Katie what she wanted for Christmas, and when she didn't know how to answer, John suggested a "horsie."  I sent him a look that said: "Could you at least pick something realistic?"  Today, the day after a Christmas when she was flooded with gifts, we asked her what her favorite Christmas present was, and she said her horsie. 

Joshua opens his first Christmas gift.  This is at his Oma & JPa's house, Dec. 24.

Katie models the new princess hooded towel she got from her Uncle Jamie.  It even has a crown on top that my camera wasn't fast enough to catch.  Joshua got a towel that looks like Mater from "Cars."

Katie's big gift for Christmas: a pink tricycle from Oma and JPa!

Katie received a ballerina doll that ties to her feet so the two of them will "dance together."

Joshua inspects his big Christmas gift: a train table from Oma and JPa!  JPa pulled out an old set of his electric trains so that Joshua could enjoy the table till he received his own wooden trains the next day.

True to form, this is how Joshua prefers to enjoy his train table.

Joshua enjoys his hot fudge sundae at Christmas Eve dinner.

Late December 24 after the kids have gone to bed and Santa has arrived. 

Christmas morning!  Katie loves her new cupcake set that Aunt Laura gave her for her playhouse.

Later that morning, we headed to my parents' house, where my parents, most of my siblings and Katie's cousins were there to greet us.  Katie and her 3-week-older cousin Ally had matching ruby slippers.

We had a wonderful time with my family.  Uncle Mike made a rocking chair for Joshua and Katie out of Amazon boxes.  With boxes this fun, why buy toys?

Before I share the videos, I have a funny story.   A few weeks ago, Katie was talking about how she wanted the DVD "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown."  I happened to know that Oma and JPa had bought her that for Christmas, and so I told her to pray for it.  So she diligently prayed for that DVD.  When she opened it on Christmas Eve, she exclaimed: "God gave me Good Man Charlie Brown! I prayed for it!"  So funny and cute.

Anyway, as you know, Joshua's big obsession right now is Muppet Babies. His room will soon be decorated in that theme and many of his Christmas gifts reflected that theme.  Here are a few videos of him opening Muppet Babies gifts. I love how he yells "Bahbee!" and how Katie suggests that they watch the video together.  You can tell they're eager to play with each other's gifts!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

2009 in Review: Christmas

Christmas 2009 was a weeklong affair for our family. Every bit of it was a blessing.

This was Joshua's first Christmas. He learned that wrapping paper is more fun than what's inside, and that you have to eat it fast before Mommy and Daddy realize you've got it.

On the other end of the spectrum, this was the first year Katie could start to understand the concepts behind Christmas. If you ask her whose birthday Christmas is, she says it's Jesus' birthday. She has memorized the entire 16-line poem about Baby Jesus that's in her Toddler Bible. We kept Santa talk to a minimum this year and instead anticipated the birth of Baby Jesus. Katie also is totally enraptured by two Christmas specials: Christmas Eve on Sesame Street (my favorite Christmas special of all time) and A Charlie Brown Christmas.

The weekend before Christmas, we were supposed to travel to visit my grandma and extended family, but we were snowed out. The weekend wasn't a total bust though. We were able to enjoy several feet of snow, and a few days later we ventured out to join some friends for a night of dinner and caroling. Katie enjoyed singing, playing simple musical instruments, and dancing around with her friends. And Jenn and Jeff, our hosts of the evening, were thoughtful enough to give each of the kids gifts that were especially suited to their personal interests. What a wonderful night.

On December 23, we travelled to John's parents' house, where we enjoyed a day and a half with his family. After a delicious home-cooked brunch on December 24, we gathered around the tree for presents.

Joshua's gifts that day included a personalized sippy cup, a fun whirling toy, his first set of blocks, a reindeer hat, a sock monkey jack-in-the-box...

... and of course, his favorite gift of all: Ribbon!


Poor Joshua was not amused when Daddy dressed him in the clothes that came on Katie's new camouflage-wearing stuffed moose.

Katie received several wonderful gifts as well, but the best was saved for last. Oma pulled out John's sister Laura's old baby doll and cradle, as well as several sets of clothes that Oma had handsewn this fall. Now Oma and Katie will have hours of fun dressing and undressing the baby doll -- a doll Oma and Katie have named "Baby Lucy" (since that's the name I had wanted to use for Katie).



Even the dogs got gifts! Here JPa presents Jamie's dog Brooks with the holiday tennis ball we bought him.

After naptime, we got dolled up and went out for Christmas Eve dinner. Katie wore the new snowman dress that Oma had just given her, and Joshua wore his Santa outfit.

After a wonderful 36 hours with John's family, we headed home to get a few Zzzz's before Christmas morning at my parents' house.

Every year, even when none of us were kids, Santa Claus has come to my parents' house. My mom makes all of us squeeze onto the stairs outside the closed-off living room while she walks through the living room and ooohs and aaahs over all the things that Santa has brought us. Then she walks over to the door, verbally tortures us some more, and finally lets us in. Each individual or family has an entire chair full of unwrapped gifts that Santa has brought us. Our family's chair is the one on the right -- you can see my mom peeking through the door delivering the verbal torture to those of us outside.

(I probably should explain the verbal torture -- she's just trying to get us excited and impatient -- her "Are you ready? Do you want to see what Santa brought you?" was very effective at increasing our anticipation when we were kids. Now she gets more reactions along the lines of, "Are you done yet, Mom, or can I go back to bed for awhile?")

Here are some photos of our family enjoying each other and the generous bounty of gifts.

The last photo is my brother Stephen with a John Calvin bobblehead doll that my parents had special-ordered for him -- although when Stephen opened the box, we discovered that Calvin's head must have bobbled a little too hard!

More photos, including Lindsey's homemade ribbons, Stephen holding Joshua while I took my turn at Scrabble, and Daniel pushing Joshua around in Joshua's new Tonka truck:

Dinner was supposed to be at 1 pm (Katie's naptime) but it wasn't ready till 3 pm, so we tried to encourage Katie to take a nap while she waited. John laid down to encourage her to sleep, and his efforts were successful in getting at least one person to sleep.

Merry Christmas, Santa Baby!

Finally, around 6 pm, we headed back home to celebrate our own family Christmas.

Here Katie opens her new (well, new to her; I bought it on eBay from a Goodwill store) Muppet Babies book of fairy tales and nursery rhymes. As soon as she opened it, she started "reading" us the stories of The Three Bears and Little Bo Peep!

And here is a video of Katie and Joshua playing with the musical instruments that Santa brought Katie at my parents' house:

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! We sure did.