The Black Family: And now I will bore you with tons of pictures from last year

I've been lax in my blogging duties yet again. This time, I blame the abbreviated monster known to most as the PTA - you know, the Parents and Teachers Association? Well, I was asked to be on the board this year, and then asked to chair a committee about which I knew nothing.

I hereby warn you mothers of young children to NEVER make this mistake.

The PTA in our house now quietly stands for Pain in the you-know-what.

Anyway, I had a big event that I was working on steadily since Christmas, but now that that is behind me, hopefully I can get caught back up here.

So, imagine yourself stepping in to a time machine that will take you back to the far off date of December 2010.

Welcome!

This picture is totally out of order, but Blogger is not cooperating with me today. This was taken on Christmas day. Uncle Zach with all the boy cousins - Ezekiel, Benjamin, and Noah. Hello, Biblically named boys!

And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Before Christmas break, Claire's class had itself one humdinger of a party. Seriously, the parents in her class went all out, and we had chicken fingers, cupcakes, sandwiches, veggies, fruit, hot cheese dip, and more.

Ben was super thrilled to "help" Claire with her Christmas party craft.

And after this delightful pictures of various classmates working on their craft, my camera batteries decided to call it quits. Awesome!

So, the next "hunormous," as Ben would say, group of pictures were all taken while we were up in Ohio visiting family over the Christmas holiday.

We started Christmas Eve night at Grandma's house with some serious present opening fun.

Aunt Allison and Uncle Jeff. Odd how Jeff looks like he is having about as much fun as getting a tooth drilled.

Putting those new toys to work.

The evening even included a Claire-modified version of the game Catch Phrase. Here she is giving a clue.

Papaw and Claire

Oh, hello! What's this? Aren't you 2 people usually behind the camera?

Grandma snuggles

Ben loving on Aunt Allison

And then we come to Christmas morning. We stayed with mom this year, and here are the kids sitting on the stairs waiting to come down to see what Santa left for them this year.

Ben must be shutting his eyes because he is so overwhelmed by all the excitement.

SCORE!

Obligatory Christmas morning family pic. Notice how Shawn and I are holding on to both kids by the arm. They were very interested in getting back to the toys ASAP.

In fact, Ben was so interested in everything toy-related, that it was difficult to restrain the kid at all. He was in Cloud 9 from the get go, and his joy and excitement was something to watch.

For example:

Oh my gosh! Cars! Trains! More Cars!

Okay, I'll turn and smile at you quickly, but I really want to get back to playing with my new Transformer.

Jubilation!

And, finally, my favorite of the night:

Is that the face/pose of a happy, totally psyched kid or what? Kachow!

It was a very special Christmas for this little guy, that's for sure. He was totally into all aspects of it, and was so effusive in his joy and thanks for each and every gift he got. We heard lots and lots of "this is exactly what I wanted" and "thank you, I just love it" and "this is the best gift ever." He provided lots of entertainment.

We love spending time with family while up in Ohio, but certainly one of the highlights for the kids is that they get to see their cousins.

I think I've mentioned before about despite Claire and Kayli being so close in age how radically different they are in their personalities. They get along great, but they really couldn't be more different.

For example, here is Kayli opening the gift she asked for:

That's a remote control tarantula, people. She was thrilled. Claire was perplexed.

It's not a family Christmas without a meal at the "kid's table."

Ben and his cousin Zeke.

Ben: Oh, I am so happy on this wonderful day, and I just LOVE my older cousin Zeke so much, but I really do wish that he would let me play with his hand-held game system! Yahoooo!

Zeke: This kid is a little weird.

Uncle Jesse showing the boys how it's done.

The family!

And, the funny-face family. I'm thinking this one is probably more true to life.

Christmas Night was spent at my dad's house, and I just couldn't resist snapping a picture of this moment.

Noah gets his first bike. Does that face say it all, or what?

The family.

The day after Christmas we were able to catch up with some friends from college. We haven't seen Olivia and Andy Koch in probably 10 years, so it was so nice to spend some time with them and their sweet family.

The kids were all fast friends, and I am so regretting not having video evidence of the sweet Just Dance Wii performance that Claire and Caroline did for us. They were like 2 peas in a pod, and Ben is absolutely smitten by Sylvie. He still talks about how much he loves her.