I am so excited to get 2010 started but I can’t feel comfortable with moving forward until I pay homage to the past and that means writing this obligatory Christmas post complete with pictures and everything. Don’t you feel so lucky?

I already posted pictures of the kids making candy trains which is a family tradition that I brought to our marriage. Chuck’s Christmas contribution was to bring the tradition of a Christmas party. Every December, on the 2nd Saturday we throw a kid friendly party. It’s been a family function for more than 30 years but this year it was for friends only since Chuck’s family has grown out of it. We invited people that we hoped would bring the joy and festivities as well as some really good grub.

Laurelyn didn’t take long to rope this poor guy into lending her a lap to snuggle on. I don’t think he minded too much.

Laurelyn wasn’t the only adorable little one at the party. Here’s a picture of Brinley who was only baby 2 of the four babes in arms we had.

I don’t know what I’m going to do once Laurelyn grows out of the baby stage. I’m going to have to surround myself with pregnant women for eternity.

Chuck and I invited Santa who made a visit with Mrs. Claus by his side. They were so cute and so perfect. They had me rushing to find a paper and pencil so I could write out my own list for Santa. All the kids sat on Santa’s lap to share some time and to get a present. Some of the younger kids were completely enamored with the jolly old man. That expression of excitement and joy makes all the work of putting a part together worth it.

Jason with Santa.

Jocelyn with Santa.

David didn’t seem surprised to see or Santa or even interested in talking to the man in red. All he wanted was that present. Someone needs to teach that boy some manners!

Once the party is finished we can sit back and wait for the big day. I love how quiet and beautiful my house is after the little ones go to bed. I get to sip my tea and enjoy the lights from the tree and the decorations scattered around.

We did some small crafts and would usually be out sledding in the backyard but this year it was colder than I remember. It felt like every day was going to freeze my nose straight off my face. I was worried that my nose would freeze and just plop into the snow when I would walk to the mailbox. We bunkered down and tried to keep warm.

Here’s some snapshots of the snow that Jason took.

I spent a good part of my evenings trying to sew a doorway puppet theater for the kids’ Christmas. It turned out beautiful although I need to fix one thing on it before it’ll be perfect.

Here’s a pic of it before it was entirely done.

I found this picture of a puppet theater and thought that it looked like enough straight stitching that I just might be able to pull it off. I need to add one more tension rod at the very top to keep the top from folding in on itself.
My sewing skills are very limited but it’s on my New Years resolution list to bring my skills up so I can start making some cute kid clothes and some skirts for myself. I can never find anything I like!

Some pictures of our Christmas morning. The kids got Socker Boppers which are something I had never seen before but Chuck had these when he was a kid. He has fond memories of beating up his Dad wielding a pair of these bad boys and our kids didn’t take long before they were red in the face and sweating.

From these pictures you might think that the boys had a hay day with the Socker Boppers but the kids that has STILL not gotten tired of beating people with plastic gloves would this little one.

An added bonus for Christmas was having our good friend Tanya spend the holiday with us. She even brought her two beautiful dogs with her and the kids loved the canine addition to Christmas although we need to plan better next year because I think it would have been fun to have something under the tree for Charlie and Rya. Atleast we had something for Tanya to open under constant supervision from the baby.

Those are down slippers baby! Only the best for our Tanya!

Alright, one last picture of the puppet theater in action because after all the hours I put into that thing the kids better throw away all their toys and only play with this.

Next on the to-do list is making puppets that are bigger than the IKEA finger puppets we gave them.

Merry Christmas!