Christmas!

Okay, I figured I owed some Christmas pictures, since it has been over a week already!

Christmas Day for our little family:

The Stockings after Santa left:


The tree after Santa left:


Landon sleeping peacefully when we went to bed (about 1 am!) on Christmas Eve:


Landon seeing Santa's "cresents" for the first time:


Learning to use his favorite new four-wheeler:


Me, with my new Bosch and attachments (isn't my hubby the BEST?!):


Jon opening his new Blu-Ray player:


Landon opening his new guitar:


I'll spare you the rest of the present-opening pictures, as they're all the same, just with different gifts! After a VERY exciting gift-extravaganza, we went to Jen's (or Dayne & Sarah's, or Mom & Dad's) house for family breakfast, which was really great, though I forgot to bring my camera so I can't share the festivities. We spent the rest of the day as a family at Andrea's house, just helping the kids with their new toys, and playing games. It was a really great, relaxing day, and we felt so blessed to have had such a great Christmas morning, given the economy, and so many who are suffering right now.

On Tuesday, Dec. 23, we had our annual family Christmas Eve party here at our house in Payson. I'll share a couple of those pics with you, including the one of Jon's parents up on our big screen!

The adult table in the living room: (the gifts under the tree are the ones that my family sent from Ohio...think they spoil us a little bit?)



The food-we had a turkey, dressing (or stuffing), brisket, green beans & bacon, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, salad, sausage balls, deviled eggs, I think we had it all...except for Chucky Chicken!:



The desserts-My Mom shipped me the amazing strudels overnight from a bakery in Ohio. Isn't she the best?:



And of course we can't forget the time-honored (and my FAVORITE) family tradition of singing family songs after dinner. This is something I always imagined families doing together, but never thought they actually did, so this tradition holds a lot of meaning for me. And this year even Anne joined in the festivities, and not only did she join in, she LOVED it! She and Granger updated the songbooks to include some songs from our generation, and it was really neat to have oldies like Dad's favorite, In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree, juxtaposed with some new songs like The Way I am.

Granger with his guitar:




Dayne & Sarah:



The kids, singing:



Mom and Dad on the webcam:



After we got smart, and put Mom and Dad on the big screen!



And it should be noted that we owe LOTS and LOTS of thanks to Nick, who wasn't there, but covered LOTS (like 5) of cases that evening so that Jon could be home and help me with the party! That's one great boss (and a pretty good brother-in-law) right there. So thanks to Nick (and Andrea) for their sacrifices! And even more thanks to Granger and Anne for coming over early (like 6 HOURS early) to help me get set up since there were so many surgeries that day, and Jon couldn't do the prep work with me! We are lucky to have such a great family! I get homesick for Ohio, and my family there, quite a lot, but having such a great family here makes it easier to be so far from home...though I did tell my Mom that if I'm having twins like Jon keeps taunting me about (I'm not BTW) she has to move here for at least two years!