Tuesday, January 1, 2013

First of a few Christmas Recaps...


Happy New Year, everyone!

We've had a really great break.  Mike is in a slight depression that today is the last day and is kicking himself for not taking off the rest of the week and wanting to kick some Shakopee patootie for not giving the kids the rest of the week off.  Oh well.  I have the rest of the week off.  :)

Because of the break and me not really touching my computer since about December 21st, there is a little back-tracking I need to do.

This year my family celebrated Christmas in mid-December.  

We started with our annual family photo - this just gets so much easier every year!


But on to bigger things....presents!!

First there were stockings...





(Each of the younger girls got a complete princess set - including new lip gloss!)

This was really the calm...


Before the storm...


We unwrap gifts in turns so this process can take awhile, but it's fun to see what everyone got and their expressions!




(I totally thought we'd be the loser aunt/uncle who gave a Frisbee to Austin.  HOWEVER - he was so excited to get this Captain America shield - our gift giving reputation was saved thanks to a marketing genius!)



(Mom tends to get pretty excited over her gifts.)


(Dad...not so much.  This is his face right before he says, "That's really neat."  In "dad-speak" this is the equivalent to a normal person saying, "Wow!  Stupendous!!  That's SO AWESOME!!!"  Tracy and I have both managed to follow mom's lead and marry men who express excitement with periods at the ends of their declarations.  It's so unsatisfying.)


 (This is one of my favorite pictures from the day.  Riley was over the moon about getting a horse that was about as big as her.  I love Ellie's arms out - she just looks so happy for her sister.  Or she's asking Riley to hand it over...but I choose to believe the first scenario.)






(Maddie is definitely out of the toy stage and getting into more girly-girl things.  We haven't decided if this makes shopping for her easier or harder - but she was pretty happy with her gifts that day!)


 (Jake received a blanket from my parents.  They weren't sure he would like it, but it's a duplicate of one that he LOVES at their house, only it matches his room.  He declared that night that it could very well be the best present he received for Christmas.)


(Probably one of my favorite pictures of my mom.  She loves having her house full of family and you can see it on her face.)



(Dan's got his hands full with three girls but he looks okay with that...)

It was a really wonderful Saturday filled with lots of food, lots of fun, and lots of goofballs!


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