Christmas Eve and Beyond

Every Christmas Eve, the family gets together to enjoy each other's company, and to 'ahem' help Santa move gifts from household to household. We used to do this at my grandparent's house, but life changes and now we do it at my sister Sandy's place, which is a neutral meeting ground.

Maia is dressed and ready to go, but insists she has to "cook" first.

Liam is dressed handsomely for Christmas Eve.

Cousin photo! (this was the best of the lot)

Brother and Sister, Cuties-in-cahoots.

Awwwwwwwwww

Liam helps decorate Sandy's tree with candy canes.

CHRISTMAS MORNING!!!
The big red gift is Maia's new play kitchen (a toy she LOVES), and the big black gift is Liam's handmade Tardis (how awesome is that? Your very own Tardis??).

Following the tradition of my family, the kids wait at the top of the stairs, where they can't see the tree or gifts yet, until we are ready for them to come down.

Slowly they inch down.

Until finally they see the amazing sight under the tree.

Maia is in love with her kitchen from the first second.

And I can't even begin to explain how excited Liam was to get his Tardis. AND to find another gift waiting inside for him.

The perfect gift for the Doctor.

Next we head to Grandmom and PopPop's house for more gift open. Cousin Cole has been patiently waiting to open the gift we got for him, so he goes first (Spiderman comforter).

Then Aunt Michelle begins handing out the gifts while Liam looks on excitedly.

Maia makes herself comfortable near Sandy and commences gift opening. Awesome Hello Kitty pajamas.

And Hello Kitty slippers.

Ahhhhhh, how comfy.

Liam gets a mini Tardis to play with, complete with the 11th Doctor and Amy.

He also got a Doctor Who calendar.

Maia waits patiently while Sandy helps.

But a 2-year-old only has so much patience.

What a lovely necklace! (yes, she loves Hello Kitty...can you tell?).

And Liam gets a belt display rack, to display his belts from Tae Kwon Do.

(Sadly, though, he quit three weeks later)

Season's Greetings

The holidays are in full force and with it the barrage of pictures. Okay, maybe a small barrage.

Liam and Maia were pretending to be ninjas. We managed to catch them in this one picture.

A selfie with Maia.

Liam and Maia love hanging out together (most of the time).

The annual decorating of the tree. This time most of the ornaments were pretty well distributed instead of ending up on one branch.

Though we did have to encourage Maia to try for different branches.

We even had help from the Ramsdells.

After the arduous work of hanging ornaments, Anastasia kicks back with her knitting (which I taught her, I am proud to say).

One of the kids' favorite spots is in our bed. They love getting under the sheets.

They also love it when we treat them with a movie in bed.

Maia insisted that she was one of Santa's elves. Apparently they wear pants on their heads.

Yearly visit from Santa on the fire truck.

Liam and Willa did their Christmas exchange at the skating center.

Afterwards there was playing out in the yard (yes, it was actually warm enough to play in December, though I did have to yell at Liam to put his jacket back on).

Maia is a cutey, even when she gets angry. Here, she is upset at us and after finishing crying, she is hiding in anger behind a pillow. Hey, whatever works...it kept her out of our hair for a few minutes.

Then Liam calmed her down more by reading her a book. Ah, big brothers to the rescue.

Christmas Eve morning, Liam wasn't feeling so hot. We were worried he would throw up and have to miss the holiday festivities that evening. Maia kept him company on the couch while watching TV.

  Luckily he felt better by noon.

And it was November...

Pictures from November. Relatively good days, which made for nice pictures.
First, the Doctor (Who), contemplating the universe's mysteries.

The kids are enjoying the brand new glider that we bought for the play set.

Cheese!

And then they enjoy the pile of leaves that Mommy just raked up.

I might have mentioned before that the kids love to snuggle in our bed whenever they get the chance. I think this is probably a Saturday morning, as they are trying to wake up. Liam probably jumped into our bed, and Maia wanted to join him.

Liam introduces Maia to the joys of sack races. Or at least hopping around in them.

Apparently Liam makes a good bed.

Liam has some pretty good artwork. And I am impressed by his attempt to spell things.

Christmas tree shopping! The kids pick THIS one.

A romp through the trees and fields and the kids have turned into bugs! Check out their antennae!