Christmas 2008

Someday I'll get it together...Okay, who am I kidding here. So, this summer I figured out that I can't get three kids ready for a smooth first day of school if we take a trip to Buffalo the week before and only leave ourselves one day to prepare for the first day of school. Lesson learned: don't go anywhere the week before school starts. Well, this Christmas season I learned that when you take a somewhat last minute trip to California with 5 kids for Thanksgiving, you're going to be a little behind on Christmas and all its trappings. At least I didn't stress out over it too much. And we had an awesome Christmas even if my delicious home-made gingerbread house pieces are still un-assembled and the 5 pounds of Christmas candy I bought to decorate the gingerbread houses with are still in a bag on the counter screaming out my name. Here are some highlights:

I know it sounds kind of un-Coloradoan, but we just go to the local grocery store and pick out a tree. We've done it three years in a row now, and they are great trees. Our first year in Colorado we went up to the mountains to choose a tree, but they were all a little too "Charlie Brown" for us. We ended up going home empty handed. Now, our new tradition is the unraveling of the tree. You pick it out looking like this:


And then, you pull on the string and watch the shape of your tree appear before your very eyes. It's quite exciting. It's become a "moment" in our family.

Here they are all, waiting anxiously for the "reveal".





My brother Matt and his family made a trip out to Colorado all the way from North Carolina. They spent the first part of the week with Leslie's brother and family down in Castle Rock, and then, they came up to our house for the second part of the week. That meant that we got to have the world's cutest little baby Jesus star in our family nativity program. He was so adorable. When the program was over, and my Mom was done playing the piano, she finally had a chance to turn around and see Baby Dean. He looked so angelic my Mom almost started crying. He really was so sweet, even when his cousin, Julia, thought the whole point was to shower him with gifts. He just sat there all peaceful. Literally, Julia slammed like 6 gifts down on him, and he just sat there quietly smothered in gifts. It was so cute. I think I have a video somewhere. Here watch me be techno and find it for you. First the still shot:





Now, I'm off to find the video. We got a new digital video camera for Christmas, by the way. Wow. It's nice. Okay, I just watched the video. Excuse how long it is. I don't know how to edit videos yet. Some of you will enjoy every second of it. You others can just stop watching when you get bored. Excuse also my loud voice. Eeks.






Then, of course, the picture of the Christmas pajamas. We loved having Clive and Van be a part of our evening. By now, I think, that Baby Dean had gone to bed.




Then, the priceless videos of some of the moments of our Christmas. Yes, we did get a trampoline. And, yes, we did get a puppy. I guess I should just devote one whole post to the puppy. She really is cute. See for yourself.



The arrival of "Daisy" as she is now named was anticipated by the whole neighborhood. We had our neighbor watch her for a few days before Christmas, because the breeder was from a few hours away. Her daughter lives just a few minutes away, so I picked her up on Monday morning. Jessi, the neighbor who watched her, was so nice to help us out like that. Anyway, you can see at the end of the video how into it everyone was. It was a great moment.



I was an anxious wreck the whole morning hoping that no one would be too disappointed with what was under the tree, not realizing the other presents that were waiting for them in the backyard and at the front door. My brother Matt was so great and helped Tim put up the trampoline late Christmas Eve night. It was FREEZING out there. Leslie and I did our part, too. It was so fun to have it all ready for the kids to discover the next morning.






All in all, it was a great Christmas. We are so blessed. Please know that we count you, our dear family and friends, as some of our greatest blessings.

Okay, I'll try again later on the videos. It was taking way too long.