Merry Christmas!

6:04 a.m.  That's the time that Will woke us up this morning.  We told him last night that the time on the clock had to start with a 6 before he could wake anyone up. He came into our room at 5:45 because he had a headache. I sent him back to bed but that only lasted for 19 more minutes. He and I spent a few minutes watching tv before the rest of the family trickled downstairs. Grandma and Pop-pop spent the night with us and Unce Matt and Aunt Vicky and the star of the show came over bright and early to open presents.  It was a great day, one of those magical Christmas' where everything seemed to go as planned.  The kids were buck wild yesterday and brimming with excitement and a fair helping of cranky/naughty, but today, after the presents were unwrapped we just had a nice day.  Both kids received the present that they were most hoping for and we spent the day assembling said presents, eating yummy food and napping.  What a lovely end to the year. 

This was taken a few weeks ago and looked much different this morning.  Dangit!  I didn't get a picture of the tree with the mountain of presents underneath. Maybe next year?

Meet Cuddles, Reina's most-wanted toy also known as monkey-with-a-diaper.  This thing makes 100 noises and is motion-activated.  Fun for the whole family! 

Will and one of his top toys (he had a big list).  A battery operated nerf gun.  Now that IS fun for the whole family. 

The cutest Santa Baby on the planet.  She brought a different kind of joy to our holiday.  And she fell asleep on my shoulder.  Snuggles! 

These pictures are out of order but I'm too tired (see 6:04 a.m.) to rearrange anything.  This was the beginning of the present-opening. 

Yeeeeehaw!!  Yep, it's dark outside. 

Merry Christmas friends and family!  Here's hoping your Christmas was the equivalent of a 6-yr old boy opening a 1,175 piece lego set.  Yeeeehaw! 

You oughta be in pictures

We are in the middle of Christmas pageant extravaganzas.  Reina's program was last week, the church's program was Sunday and Will's school program was Tuesday.  AND W and R will fill in angel and shepherd duty at Aunt Vicky's church on Christmas Eve.  It's a fun week.  

Last Sunday, we had one excited participant and one not-so excited.  Can you tell which is which?  

To his credit, he perked up for the actual performance and sang *most* of the songs. 

Earlier in the week at Reina's preschool program, the kids had a surprise visitor.  These pictures are out of chronological order but I'm too tired to fix it. 

Shy Will meeting Santa.  He wants a Star Wars Lego and mumble mumble mumble.

If I make eye contact with Santa, does that up my odds of getting what I want? 

During her program, Reina sang her heart out.  

I was trying to get a good picture of her outfit but this is all I came up with. She had a cute charcoal grey skirt, with the white shirt and gold cardigan.  She would've worn it to church on Sunday but I made the mistake of letting her eat breakfast in it.  It was a charcoal grey skirt and gold cardigan with toast and jam. 

December

It's December 8th and I'm woefully behind on my Christmas to-do list, and that includes blogging.  Christmas Card, you are next.  We had a busy week and now it's that whirlwind time of Christmas programs, shopping and baking and whatever else we can squeeze into the month. Here's the last week in pictures. 

 

Saturday, Reina and I did some holiday shopping (for me) while Will hung out with the Hansen grandparents and Glenn hunted.  Reina was an enthusiastic shopping partner even though she wanted me to limit my selections to pink, purple and yellow. Not really my signature color(s), especially for work clothes.  She also enthusiastically liked everything I tried on which was great for my ego, but not so great for the budget. 

 

I'm helping! 

 Saturday night, we braved the local Christmas parade.  It wasn't as chilly as in previous years.  Will had left his jacket at school for the long weekend so he wore one of my fleeces.  It didn't fit as well as it could have. 

Trigger would've loved this float - a giant pheasant made out of twinkly lights.

My little hearty Wyoming parade watchers.  It's not cold! 

 A few days after the parade (luckily) we had a crazy cold front come through and drop our temperatures and drop a bunch of the white stuff for good measure.  As I write this, it's -2.6 which is a little balmy considering we had lows in the negative teens and twenties with the wind chill.  The dogs are stir crazy and we're all a little chilled to the bone but we have a heat wave coming this week - it's actually going to get above freezing.  Yeah! 

This was my workout over the lunch hour on Wednesday.

It was a 2-dog night.  Cold pups love to snuggle! 

We had a great weekend, busy with basketball and shopping and a birthday party and football. In the midst of all of that, Will decided to open up a little shop to sell some toys and make room for new Christmas presents.  The catch was that he'd only sell to people in our house with the understanding that he'd take the toys back when he was done.  So not exactly capitalism, but I appreciated his entrepreneurial spirit, and that cute face.