Tuesday, December 25, 2012

A Wonderful Christmas

 Another wonderful Christmas!
This year felt more "laid back" than in recent years, but it was lovely. Maybe it is because the kids are older, and they know what to expect and aren't so wound up with anticipation. Not that they weren't pretty excited! Both kids had A Present (not the Same present, fortunately) that they were very eagerly looking forward to "playing" with, and then a couple others that were nearly as thrilling.

Here they are, just down the stairs and not quite awake. A nice mom would have let them rub the sleep out of their eyes before making them face the camera. Sorry, kids!

Here Travis is preparing to devour a chocolate bear. Because cinnamon rolls and chocolate are the traditional breakfast of Christmas!
 Opening stocking gifts and eating breakfast.

A new Pokemon game!

My cinnamon rolls came out very nicely this year. Not doughy in the middle, which has happened some years.

This is The Present that Katie has been wildly excited about...
a beautiful dressing table, from my parents! It has a padded seat, a felt lined drawer, and everything!
 
 (we took it upstairs to Katie's room tonight, but she let us all admire it in the living room today)

Here Travis is opening his present from Katie...
a poster from his favorite musician. I guess this means he is Really a teenager, eh?

(Harry likes the dressing table too!)

Travis gave Katie chocolates. He knows what she likes.
 And he gave Ed candy too. We are a family of sweets lovers!


 Travis's godmother has excellent taste -- she gave the kids Amazon cards, and they Love them!

Katie got new canvases for oil painting!

I was a little sad that I hadn't gotten a new game for us to play this year, but my old college roommate surprised us with three new games! Actually, two games -- new versions of Sorry and Monopoly -- and a really neat looking Shakespeare set with finger puppet cards and skits! The kids really enjoy Shakespeare, so I know they will have fun with this last, especially! (and it is educational!)

This is what Travis requested from us, and it is fun! The kids and I played it today, and I'm sure it burned off a fair number of those chocolates I ate!

Doesn't Ed look fetching?

Books! Beautiful books! I believe I am set for reading matter for a good while to come!

 And books for the kids (Well, okay, these are all books I wanted to read too. But the kids will love them and would have wished for them if they read book reviews!).

And here Travis is with the present he was wildly eager to receive. It is a keyboard thingy that hooks up to the computer. Aside from some Just Dance time and (enforced) meals, he hasn't looked up from this all day.


Beautifying. She is such a girly-girl!

Just Dance 4. This is an excellent game!


The cats are under the impression that we got them finches and other small birds for Christmas (Katie made assorted bird treats at church on Sunday and hung them all over the tree outside the kitchen window), and just forgot to bring them inside. 

So, it's been a lovely day! We had delicious Christmas pizza for dinner, and we've spent the evening playing with our various new "toys." And we still have the rest of the week off! Hooray! My baby brother and his girlfriend and one of his children are here for the week, and they'll be coming over for dinner tomorrow night. They were here Monday afternoon, and they are excellent company! So tomorrow I may do a bit of cleaning, and certainly some baking, but for the rest of tonight I'm eyeing up that Shakespeare skit game, and maybe I'll get in some more reading!

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