Christmas Highlights, in photos

Brian, Mel, and Katy have been working on this 3D puzzles for weeks - they finally finished it!



Christmas Eve morning with Oma and Opa - starts with stockings and breakfast.

The gift from Oma this year was a puppet stage and puppets for all the kids. The stage doubled nicely on Christmas morning when Katy got magic kits and was able to perform several shows for us.

What was that I was saying about aggressive boys? David LOVED the Michigan punching bag from Oma.

An up close look at my girth, 37 weeks. You know, for posterity (and Cindy, who requested an updated pic).

After church on Christmas Eve, I just love the family by the tree. You'll see 2 more families below in this same pose.

So tough to capture them...and we totally cheated and got Luke dressed just for this picture. He didn't go to church because I didn't want to put him in the childcare area when he puked the day before. Not nice to do that to other families. The big kids sat in big church with us (and did great! The guy in front of us said "Your kids did really well," and I said, "I learned my lesson from last year and brought things to keep them busy. Last year I was embarrassed.").

"Dear Santa. I hope you give me something great! My brothers have been nice. Love, Katy. P.S. Merry Christmas."

This year we bought a new book for Advent, The Story of Christmas. It has 24 little mini books that each tell a small portion of the Christmas story. You can hang each book on the tree after you read it on the appropriate day, but we read Book 1 on Dec 1, Books 1 AND 2 on Dec 2, etc. So here is Brian reading all 24 books on Christmas Eve.

Christmas morning with Grandpa and Grandma Sue! Luke got a huge stuffed giraffe from Aunt Mel that he couldn't stop hugging.

Katy brought down this chair from her room for gift opening and she just looked so grown-up lounging there.

David in a new Spiderman jacket, which his BFF Frank also received for Christmas. Super twins!

Grandma Sue made Christmas jigglers which were a huge hit.

Getting a ride from Grandpa without releasing his grasp from 2 of many new trucks.

Katy and David decorate Jesus' birthday cake. It's a Christmas tree and says "joy" at the top. And "544" is the largest number they could create with the candles we had in stock, so we rounded up.

 

We had such a nice day of relaxing, enjoying good company and food and new toys. David didn't want to get dressed so we didn't make him.

Several days (of illness and winter weather) later... the cousins arrived! Grammy and Papa John stopped by for part of the visit as well.

We dug around and got creative in order to dress 6 kids for snow play!

Brian pulling Katy and Carrie.

Uncle Mark gives David and Leah a ride (our "hill" is quite mild so you really need a pull for it to be very exciting).

Group effort snowman! They stayed out for almost an hour - I couldn't believe it!

All of the cousins are great piano players - so they were helping Katy play some simple Christmas tunes she's been learning.

At one point we showed them how to "Elf Yourself" on your smart phone and everyone was leaning over their devices in the kitchen cracking up.

When they are together they play lots and LOTS of games.

And they enjoyed the new "school" set up.

Uncle Mark and Kimmy.

Grammy reading books with Lukey Loo.

Final family picture. Grammy and Papa John brought us dinner that they made in their own kitchen, including dessert! They spoil us.