I'm waaaaay behind. on everything.

Our laptop broke- and can only stay on for about 15 minutes at a time.  Which makes blogging rather difficult :)

But- Christmas has come and gone.  and I took plenty of pictures.  here are a few.

I love Christmas eve.  the traditions make it one of the best days of the year. 

first tradition:

FOOD!  of all sorts.  we get takeout from every type of restaurant imagineable and just go crazy.

chinese, thai, italian, pizza, mexican, and indian this year. and diet cranberry sierra mist.  

so so tasty.

We had my sister Laney- her family- some missionaries from our church- and my pal, jackie, over for the evening.   Here's Jackie and baby Milo.  he barfs a lot.

2nd tradition:

christmas eve gifts.

the kiddos get pjs. we read luke 2. watch a short nativity movie.  read some christmas books and send the kiddos to bed

adults get to open one present.  the pixie pal.  all of the sisters, spouses, my parents, and my aunt rosemary draw names of each other and we have to give a gift that we MADE.
we have to skype the gift opening and giving so we can all be present!   it's usually pretty funny because none of us are very good at making things :)  This year Clair- my brother-in-law- had me.  For some reason the family has chosen to torture and mock me with the world's ugliest picture of me.  They all have it set to pop up when I call.  They've posted it on facebook  I look like a toenail.
So- clair furthered the tradition of ridicule and made a poster called: "It runs in the family".  Of cousins and siblings with the ugliest fat faces they could muster.   thanks, clair.  It's hanging on the fridge.
Kent may have gotten the best gift of all.  Laney cleaned our van for him. with the help of Jackie.  and it was RIDICULOUSLY dirty. and FREEZING cold outside.  She claims she saved our marriage by getting it done.  we are both grateful.
I had laney for 'pixie pals'.  She just got hired at the YMCA in Buffalo so I made her a book of all of my workouts so she could use them for her classes there.

Tradition three:

wrapping the presents!  I love staying up late with kent or my sisters or whomever will do it!!  I love presents.  I love wrapping. I love being up late!

almost finished.

2 am. Santa has arrived!!  and yes- I realize this picture is RIDICULOUS!  there are so many presents.  Keep in mind- it was Christmas for TEN people. and I love opening presents so much that kent wrapped things I already owned just so my pile looked impressive :)  He knows and loves me all too well.

Christmas morning and day were wonderful.    My favorite gift was tie dye socks from Kent.

Metta is pretty obssessed with her Dora nightgown and pillow pet.

and her dora hat.

the boys wanted this crazy expensive wii game.  74.99??!  no way.  but with black friday and coupons- I got it for 27.  they were very surprised!   and with characters from gramps and their aunt, kristy- these two had a perfect Christmas.

the barfer and his mom.  Milo got one present for christmas.  he seemed upset about it.

Kent may have been the happiest kid of all.  I was going to surprise him with this piano- but his mom had the same idea for our family!  so - we went in on it together and got Kent and kiddos an awesome weighted key- full size- electric piano!  He plays it every day.

To top off the best day ever- we got to face time my family- while they skyped my baby sister in Brazil.  We only get to talk to her TWICE a year! she's there as a missionary for 18 months for our chrch. and she cried the whole time :)  and laughed, too.  She is really happy.  and still  a little homesick :)  But I think she's going to make it.  Thankfully she's healthy! send prayers her way if you get a chance!

 Merry Christmas!!  I'm blessed beyond measure in every way.  I'm so grateful and so happy.