The Rest of Christmas Vacation

The day after Christmas was a nice day, so we were outside and we were trying to get Joey to try out his new scooter. He wasn't too interested, but we did get this picture.




Jim was raking some leaves in the yard and made a big pile. The kids were having fun jumping in and I got a couple of good pictures.





We never took our traditional "on the stairs by the tree" Christmas picture on Christmas Day (mostly because most of the family didn't ever get dressed), so we tried to take one after church. Joey and Janalynn weren't too happy, but we did get one with everyone looking at the camera!



Sunday evening we went for a drive around our neighborhood to look at Christmas lights. There was one cul-de-sac that went all out and each house had a pair of candy canes in their yard with "Merry Christmas" in a different language. We took a picture of this one for Aunt Megan since it was in Swedish.

We've enjoyed many Christmas sweets this year and Joey especially has. His standard line when he wants a treat is to tell you he wants the treat, then say, "sit at the table" and then he runs to his chair. (Do you think I've drilled it into his head enough times that we eat food at the table?) Here he is sneaking a cookie in the cute Thomas pajamas that our nanny gave him for Christmas.

We didn't do much to celebrate the new year. Jim, J.D., and Jake went to some friends' to watch and light off fireworks on New Years' Eve. Joey, Janalynn and I stayed home out of the cold. On New Years' Day we rested and relaxed at home (except for the walk that J.D., Jake, and I took to the school to run on the track). Then for the past two days we have been working on putting the house back together after our painting projects and also putting all the Christmas stuff away. We have to get ready for Grandma's visit next week and J.D.'s birthday. We just have to do a few more things in J.D.'s and Jake's new Lego room, then I will post pictures. Joey's room is pretty far from being done, but we hope to get him in it shortly after Grandma's visit ends. We are also redecorating the bathrooms and hope to have that done soon.

Christmas Day 2009

J.D. and Jake were up early on Christmas morning and went down to check out their stockings. (I guess we forgot to remind them the night before to come and get us, but then we still have Janalynn in our room and we get mad at them on regular mornings if they come in and wake us and wake her, so I guess we can't be too mad.) Anyway, they were excited to come tell us what they found when they heard Janalynn awake. (Her Christmas gift to me was to spend lots of time with me in the middle of the night since she woke up several times--I was REALLY tired.) The best part was Jake's comment that "Santa brought me what I asked for even though I made grouchy noises." (We have been threatening him all month because he has been quite grouchy.) Here are Jake, J.D., and Janalynn with the Santa gifts.



When Joey woke up, all the kids came down and started to play with their toys. Janalynn loved eating the play food she got to go with her shopping cart.




Joey got a Thomas the train Lego set and a scooter. He wasn't being very cooperative when I was trying to take pictures. That is why he isn't in the second picture.

J.D. and Jake both got Lego sets (J.D. Star Wars and Jake Lego City) and a Lego Storage Drawer (Can you guess that Mom talked Jake into asking for this. He was really excited about it, though.) The day after Christmas we sorted all the Legos by color and put them in it. (See Chatty Walls for the sticker source.)

J.D. and Jake spent most of the day at the kitchen table putting Legos together.

Jim let me take a little nap on the couch while he baked the Christmas Carol roll for breakfast, then we had a yummy breakfast of Christmas Carol roll, bacon, and fruit. Before we put Janalynn down for a nap, we let everyone open one gift. Mine was a new camera. It is another point and shoot, but 7 megapixels better and great features. I was excited since my old one was 5 years old. (J.D. will be taking the old one over for some new and improved YouTube videos.) Here's Janalynn opening her gift.

After Janalynn's nap was over (and eating a little lunch), we opened the rest of our gifts. Janalynn's favorite part was the ribbon on the gifts.

We spent the rest of the afternoon playing and relaxing. None of the boys even got out of their pajamas! Joey was not too happy when Janalynn wanted to share his train set with him.

I did catch this priceless moment when all three boys were playing with the Matchbox sets they got from their Arizona cousins. No fighting for a whole 15 minutes or so!

We also spent several hours on Skype with the grandparents. The boys loved showing them their gifts. (J.D. especially enjoyed showing them the calendar he made at school for us.)

I was going to make a somewhat fancy (but easy) Christmas dinner, but in the end I just made an omelet to go with the leftover Christmas Carol roll and that had been our Christmas breakfast.

We even ate in the dining room (mostly because the kitchen table was covered with Legos). We had a wonderful Christmas and hope all of you did too!