Christmas 2009 Recap

So...it's over??!  I think my head spun around a few times and I've now regained my balance and it's over?! 

It was a great Christmas...full of all the right things.  Oddly enough, I took fewer pictures this year than ever before.  What's up with that?  There are enough to stir up some grins, though.

Christmas Eve was a very full day.  I cooked all morning so I wouldn't have to be in the kitchen on Christmas Day.  Every year I try to give myself the day off from cooking, so that means a ton to do on the day before.  All 5 of us worked in the nursery for the 1:00 candlelight service.  I wish I had brought my camera.  Alex was painfully uncomfortable around the toddlers.  I had to coach him through the entire time.  He finally engaged with a very athletic one-year-old and played catch over and over and over.  We then attended one of my favorite services of the year.  I love it so much...it always slows me down exactly as I need to be slowed down.  And getting to wish some of my favorite people a Merry Christmas in person is a joy.  We then had dinner with my brothers and their families...

Back home then for a crazy busy Christmas Eve evening...making homemade egg nog and cinnamon rolls for the next morning, watching It's A Wonderful Life, finally getting the kids to bed so that stockings could be filled...another great joy.

*yummy Mocha cinnamon rolls*

*checking out the stockings*

*ready to dig in*

Christmas morning my camera finally found it's way back to my face!  The kids were all very happy with everything.  Our tradition is to open stockings, have our cinnamon rolls, and then open presents.  It's a slow, leisurely morning...not the frantic ripping into paper and over in a flash.  I love it.

*cute as can be in matching jammies and slippers*

*not a gag gift, they really asked for these!!*

*the moment he realized he got the chocolate touch phone!*

*Brenna's iPod speaker thing-a-ma-jig*

*bed-headed, snuggie-fied, and oh-so-happy with her new iPod!*

We then had Brad's mom here for the day, had a fabulous ham dinner, played with all the fun loot, watched a couple episodes of The Cosby Show, and then headed to the Arends for dessert and visiting with friends.  Happily exhausted at the end of a great couple days!!

My hand in the cinnamon roll picture is the only proof in pictures that I was present for Christmas Day!  Brad's in the background of a few...I just did not have photography on the brain this year!  But I enjoyed being in the moment very much, and have pictures in my mind that will last a lifetime!