Christmas 2009

This year Matthew was "Joseph" in the Joyschool production of the Nativity (he's the one in red). This was the performance for all the parents and families. He did such a good job!

The kids also performed at a rest home and all the folks enjoyed the kids.

Not quite what I had in mind for the ornament container, but very entertaining, nonetheless.

Caleb kept running to this corner and saying, "Smile!" -- which means "Take my picture!"

This is our funny Christmas tree. Matthew insisted on the colored lights on the bottom. And the ornaments eventually all got removed or moved the top. Caleb discovered that the white ones go "smash" when you throw them on the floor. He also discovered that the dark blue ones bounce (they're plastic). You'd think that the plastic ornaments would be safe. But they weren't-- Caleb figured out how to disassemble them into three pieces.

These pictures were taken by Chris-- trying to get an annual photo of the kids on Christmas morning. As you can see, they were very cooperative.

Here are Matthew and Caleb opening up presents. (Sorry grandparents, I didn't get pictures of everything! But they have loved everything you sent!!!)

Matthew cradled his "Bad Cars" all day.

And Caleb said, "It's nummy time!" every 5 minutes and then cooked for us.

Resting after a busy morning.

Chris rested too. (:

We had a lovely visit from a friend in the afternoon. Then it was time for dinner which neither of us wanted to cook. So Chris suggested that we be spontaneous and go out to eat on Christmas Day. We went to 3 cities looking for somewhere open to eat. Eventually we found a Denny's. Good ol' reliable Denny's (thinking back to Christmas Eve morning on our Honeymoon). By the time we got there and got our food, we were pretty hungry and the kids were beyond hyper-tired/overstimulated. But that worked in our favor, because it made the food almost taste good!

On the drive home we congratulated ourselves on being able to do something spontaneous even though we had a couple of kids and 8 years of marriage under our belt. That's when we saw that the IHOP ( 5 minutes from our house) was open.

"That hurts," said Chris. "That really hurts."