Christmas Catch Up (marathon post - reader beware!)

Realizing it's the last day of 2008 (what the heck!?), and knowing that the dork, type A, obsessive freak in me would not be happy with posting Christmas pictures in a post listed under the new year, I am taking my last opportunity to finally catch up on all the pictures from our Christmas trip to Ohio. We were up there for a week, but it felt like two days with all the running from place to place. We had three separate Christmas celebrations, opened a ton of gifts, and ate more food than I care to admit. It was a lot of fun, but I was totally bummed that we missed out on the snow. We don't get much, if any, snow down here, and I hate it. Claire asked me the other day what sledding was, and I about had a heart attack.

New life goal: take kids sledding.

The first few pictures were taken before Christmas. We stayed at my mom's this year, and one day the cousins all came over.

Zeke, Ben, Tristyn holding Noah, Kayli and Claire

I've posted before about how different Claire and Kayli are, but I think these costume choices say it all: Claire - princess ballerina with tiara. Kayli - blue M&M with matching hair

Zeke - Jesse's son. Enough said

Angel baby, Noah. We watched my newest nephew one day at mom's and I was astounded at what a good baby he is. He did not cry one single time the entire day. I'm not kidding. There were times we almost forgot he was even in the room! How in the world did my hellion brothers end up with such sweet, well-tempered babies? Seriously. I'm trying hard not to be bitter, but it's not really working.



Here are various pictures from our first present opening on Christmas Eve with Shawn's family.

Ben is THRILLED with his Thomas the Train pjs.

I know she looks unhappy here, but, trust me, this is Claire trying to hold back her excitement. She really wanted this Baby Alive.

There's always one toy (at least) that a kid gets which drives his parent's absolutely bonkers after about 5 minutes. Well, this truck is it. Ben LOVES it, but the motor sound it makes when pushed is mind numbing.

Happy boy watching his Bob the Builder dvd.

Ben also received a very special "gift" from Voyar, Jeff and Allison's German Shepherd. When leaving their house for the night, Ben gave hugs to everyone in the family, including the dog. However, the dog was not happy with this show of affection and proceeded to show his annoyance by clamping his mouth right on Ben's throat. No, I'm not kidding. He literally had him by the throat. Now, to be fair, I think the dog quickly realized, "shoot, this isn't a puppy," opened his mouth and dropped Ben to the floor without ripping out his jugular. Ok, maybe I'm overstating this a bit, but, really, I was petrified. It happened so fast. Yes, Ben was hysterical. Yes, I was terrified. Yes, I was really, really angry (still am, a bit). And, no, we won't be back around that dog anytime soon. This picture doesn't do it justice, but you can see the mark down Ben's cheek and under his chin

The Blacks

These few pictures were taken early Christmas morning. We let the kids open their gifts from us before heading over to my dad's house. Ben's big gift was a tool bench. He was absolutely enthralled with it, so much so that when we asked him if he wanted to open another gift or look in his stocking, he replied, "nope."

These pictures were taken at my dad's house where the family all got together to open gifts.

The Brownings

And, finally, these pictures were taken Christmas evening back at mom's house.

The kid's table. Guess which one belongs to Jesse.

The 4 siblings. I swear I am a member of this family - just the short one.

After Christmas fun at Jesse's house. Rock Band - Jesse on drums, dad (and Zeke) on guitar, and Tristyn singing vocals.

I think Ben was done with getting his picture taken.

Whew! I think that's it. We had fun with family and friends, but we are glad to be home.

Happy New Year, everyone!