Christmas

Some of the highlights:

Jack and Dasha had class parties.  They both had lots of fun, despite the expression on this face:

My dad came to spend Christmas with us and arrived noon-ish on Christmas Eve.  So we all got to go to Christmas Eve church service which has always been my favorite part of Christmas.  I got the little kids dressed up in cute outfits (bought mostly on ebay).  Again, Jack was pretty happy even though you can’t tell from this face:

The next morning was present time!  Although there were promises to the contrary, no one was ready to open before 10.  I had the camera ready and we made sure Santa ate his cookies before we dove in.  I don’t have a pic of it but my favorite present was a Gru scarf!  Just like the one from the movie “Despicable Me”!  Allan’s was a nice warm work coat:

Andrew got the next in a series of books that he’s been reading, and Tyler leaped into the 21st century and got a cell phone! ($10 a month for the line, free phone, no data plan – yay!)

This was Madelyn’s big year.  I found her need for a computer now to be bigger than my need to make her wait for graduation so she got a laptop.  So, Happy Graduation now Madelyn!  I’ll be reminding her in a year and 1/2 :).  And her other present was a new winter coat – a letter jacket since she’s getting more “letters” to put on it than she thought she would.  So that takes care of her birthday too.

(Don’t worry, the boys got a few other things as well, they were happy.)

And the little kids, they both opened all their own gifts and had fun.  They both got Signing Time movies and a door plaque to decorate and photo viewers for kids.  There were a few other things, but I think their favorites were these: