Christmas Pictures

This post is going to pretty much be entirely comprised of pictures. For me it's easier to do it this way.

This first pic is of Garrett and I decorating the tree, I hadn't started hanging ornaments at the top yet, but as of right now, ornaments are only on the top, the bottom ones have slowly migrated north (or to the trash can, thanks to the 3 year old who can destroy the indestructible). You can see our nativity set (the Fisher Price Little People one) on the cabinet under the TV and obviously the stockings are hung by the chimney with care. I have a few things on my dining room table and kitchen table, but I didn't take pictures of those. We have those electric candles in all the windows, but after our fire scare with the fridge a few weeks ago when we initially thought the candles were the culprit, I never turned them on after that, so really we only have a wreath on the door as an outdoor sign that we actually have Christmas spirit. Maybe next year I'll do a better job with my outside decor.

A week before we left for our trip to Indiana, we had our family Christmas here at home. I didn't want to haul every single gift we bought each other to and from Indiana. We saved the stocking stuffers and a few of the smaller presents to take with us and open on Christmas morning, the rest were opened the week before. Here are a few pictures from that day. This is Garrett helping Keith open a present.

Here I am making my excited face as I open a new phone for the house. Our's is old and a piece of crap, I love the new one! As you can see in the picture, I also got a new, big, stainless steel crockpot. I love it! I promise both of these items were on my Christmas list. Keith done good.

I know he looks disgusted here, but I promise it's his new, fake, excited smile face. He had just opened his new Thomas the train. We're drowning in trains over here.

Garrett's class had their Christmas party on the last day before the break. One of the things we did at the party was build gingerbread houses out of graham crackers, icing, and candy. Here he is showing off our creation. I think he got more icing on his shirt than on the house.

This is what happens when you're stuck in the car for 14 hours. You get a little crazy. Keith did this to see if Garrett would notice and what his reaction would be. He got a big kick out of it and this entertained him for quite some time. (That's Bullseye from Toy Story 2, for those of you who don't recognize him. He's not as famous as his counterparts, Buzz and Woody.)

So here's what I did with Buzz. There were some other stunts, but I could get carried away posting them, so let's move on.The day after we got there, we saw some snow flurries. It was also only 3 degrees outside with negative 19 degree windchill. Here's a quick shot of Garrett and Keith before getting in the car to go back to my parents after a visit with my Aunt Pat. You can kind of make out the snow flurries in this shot. This is what I did during a lot of my free time. Played old school Super Mario Brothers on the Nintendo from the early 90's. Fun! I managed the save the princess one time during the week. Another time I got to the final world, but completely forgot the pattern to get through it. I was lucky that first and only time to win the game, I even beat it with only 1 second on the clock! My brother, Jesse, and I both yelled "1 second!!!" The rest of the family was thrilled with us breaking the relative silence at that moment, but it was too exciting to not scream about it!

Here are my parents and their 3 grandkids. Yes, my child's mouth is wide open, but other than that, it's a good pic. In less than 6 months, they will add 2 more to this group.

Christmas Eve

Helping Pawpaw hunt for presents under the tree on Christmas morning.

Opening presents.

This is what Garrett and Jake did while we were eating Christmas dinner.

I guess that's it. My mom and sister can thank me for refraining from posting pictures of them trying out Riley's new hula hoop. I do accept bribes if you don't want me to post them in the future. :)