Christmas Day

Christmas Eve brought a new board game to our family: the new generation of Monopoly.  The kids played together happily for hours!  The fun part of the game is that it uses something akin to Debit Cards instead of cash, eliminating much hassle, confusion, and argument.  Other Christmas Eve gifts: a page-a-day calendar for each of the kiddos (Timothy: Would You Rather?  Andrew: Stupid History Facts.  Melinda: Origami-a-Day.  Audrey: Cuteness Overload) and some music for Chris and I from Eric (Blind Pilot and The Radio Dept.) and a Wii game for the kiddos from Eric.  The only bummer about Christmas Eve is that I forgot to initiate Christmas Carol singing-round-the-piano time.  :(

Christmas day was very nice.  I loved having my family around.  Matthew and Siri and Lucy (and Greta) arrived mid-presents, and got to join in the chaos.  I'm missing a good picture of Andrew opening a gift because there was simply so much going on.  I have to remind myself that when there are fewer pictures at moments like these, it simply means that we were having a good time.

It was great to see Chris, Eric, and Matthew cooking up great food in the kitchen.  Also great to see: my sweet little niece Lucy playing with everyone, and my girls watching a movie with my dad.

Timothy gets creative in his "sammich" making

Melinda gets creative with some little people