Scenes from Christmas

Christmas 2011

We haven't opened all our presents yet, but Jack decided to open the first present--it wasn't addressed to him, but he didn't mind. Then, we let the girls and Jack open their surprise balls from Grandma. Now, we are waiting for Jack to get up from a nap so we can continue with Christmas.

Pictures with Santa

We took Jack and the girls for a visit with Santa on Wednesday. Everyone was sure that Jack would cry, but he surprised us all by taking it all in stride. I think his Aunt Kami was a little upset that he cried the first time she held him, but the big guy in the red velvet suit didn't warrant a cry. Here are some pictures:


Overnight, it snowed almost 6 inches, so the girls were very excited to go play in the snow. Jack, on the other hand, didn't like it one bit. And unfortunately, it didn't end well since Jason has a broken ankle now. More on that later, but here are a couple pictures to get started. I have to get other people's cameras to get the rest:

The Stockings are Hung...

The Stockings are Hung by the Chimney with Care...and quite a few more of them than most years! We are finally starting to get ready for Christmas and Mike's sister and her family are here to help Celebrate. The girls helped put out the decorations and we made Christmas cookies yesterday, so it finally feels like the holidays. I still haven't wrapped any presents, so that's next on the agenda for Christmas preparation.

The unpacking continues...we still have quite a bit of work undone, but we're making slow progress in between the fun holiday activities. Jason has been a great help painting the bedroom, so we should be able to unpack in there soon too.

On Monday when I picked up the Mandell family, we took a side trip to the American Girls store in Denver for Katelyn and Alyssa. Their dolls were able to get their ears pierced and their hair done at the doll salon, which was very exciting. Then, we went next door and had lunch with the dolls as well. They even had high chairs so the dolls could sit at the table too.

The only thing potentially more exciting than this was the fact that it started snowing! Not enough to cover the ground, but our Southern California girls were very excited to catch snowflakes on their tongues. They also had to go out and run in the snow and play as soon as we arrived home even though it was 2 week old crusty snow. We are hoping for some fresh snow tomorrow so they can go sledding! And, we are also planning to take them iceskating at a real outdoor rink this week too.

More pictures to come as the week progresses...