Goodbye, 2009!

Every year I buy an ornament for our tree. This is the ornament for this year. I thought with the date, it was an appropriate picture with which to end the year and my Project 365.

(Day 365 of 365)

New Nativity

Josh's parents sent us this pretty stained glass nativity for Christmas. The angel in the background is one I've had for a number of years, but I think it goes really well with the stable scene.

(Day 364 of 365)

Hosting Christmas

As I mentioned yesterday, today we hosted a Christmas celebration at our house with my brother and his family, my parents, and my sister.

All 5 of the grandsons received remote control cars from Grammy and Grandpa (my parents).

My dad putting batteries into one of the cars

Once the batteries were in the cars, our family room became the open road ... or maybe the demo derby arena!

Since the 4 older boys' cars were all the same except for the color, the controllers would make more than one car move. At one point, there was a car up in the living room that someone had forgotten to turn off, and it was driving around because someone was in the family room driving another car.

Brother J and nephew E putting together E's Lego gift

The whole clan (except for me) just before eating

Grandpa and Grammy with all 9 grandchildren

A pic of the whole crew (including me since we used my camera's timer)

Father and son

Sis R, E, and SIL L playing Bananagrams. E got the game from my parents as a gift.

(It appears I got off on my numbering for Project 365 somewhere along the line since this should be Day 363, but I've only got it as Day 361 in my sequence. However, since I've got plenty of pictures in this post, I'm going to count this as Days 361-363 to get back on track.)

Let the Christmas Parties Begin!

Yesterday we all went to my grandparents' house to celebrate Christmas with lots of extended family ... aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, parents, great-grandchildren ... Lots of fun!

Then, afterwards, my brother J, SIL L, and their 4 kids came to spend the night at our house and stay a few days.

Today Josh, bro J, and 8 of the kids went sledding. The aftermath ...


J and L's kids and ours always have a blast together. Their oldest 3 and our youngest 3 were all born within weeks of each other. For a while, my mom said her grandchildren came in pairs!

Nephew E brought along his new stuffed Yoda which has been a hit with our boys as well. Many of them have been seen throughout the day carrying Yoda around on their shoulders, pretending they are Luke Skywalker.

(Day 360 of 365)

Tomorrow my parents and sister come over, too, and we celebrate our smaller extended family Christmas with them.

Wreath

My real mom made this stuffed wreath when I was little. I'm pretty sure it hung on the inside of our front door at Christmastime. Now it hangs on the door in our family room.

(Day 359 of 365)

The wreath seems stuck in an 80's time warp to me, but I still put it up. :)

Full (Advent) Calendar But Leisurely Days

(Day 358 of 365)

With the exception of church yesterday morning, we've been able to spend yesterday and today at home.

The kids have spent the days playing with their new gifts, and last night we watched Return of the Jedi.

I did get out and go grocery shopping and did a bit of other shopping today though, but otherwise things have been quiet schedule-wise. :)

Happy Birthday, Jesus!

(My 4th entry in the Christmas Journal photo challenge -- I know my 2nd pic here isn't great, but it was the only one I took with the candle lit.)

Our tradition is to have blueberry muffins on Christmas morning.

Each person gets a muffin (or two) with a candle in it. We light the candles and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.

(Day 357 of 365)

Then everyone gets to blow out the candles in their muffins.

The year we started the tradition, I baked the muffins Christmas morning. The candles started melting when we put them in the still-warm muffins. Now I always bake them the night before, but Josh usually has to remind me to do it. :)

Christmas Eve 2009

(My 3rd entry in the Christmas Journal photo challenge -- I try not to use the flash so much indoors because I don't like the shadows it casts, but then my pics tend to turn out yellow and grainy in the low light. Any helpful ideas?)

We went to DS's Christmas Eve service where Josh did the A/V for them once again. It had just started to rain when we left home, and when we returned, the rain was coming down pretty hard. Temps were about 35 degrees, but the roads weren't too bad.

Once we got home I took our traditional pic of the kids next to the tree on Christmas Eve. It turned out really well (on the 3rd try)!

As our family has grown, it's gotten harder to take a good picture with everyone looking and no one having a goofy look on his/her face. However, I've learned that the trick is to bribe the kids by saying that if I can get a good picture of them, I will take a picture of them in which they can act as crazy as they want.

Here's the bribery pic of the kids hamming it up.

E took a picture of Josh and me.

After we changed clothes, we set out our supper of sausage, crackers and cheese spread, apple slices, and Christmas cookies, milk and wine, which we ate and drank as we opened gifts.

E was very excited about her new digital camcorder.

Buy Josh tools, and he's a happy man! Actually, he asked for this heavy duty ice chopper.

J has decided he doesn't like getting his picture taken anymore, but I got this one of him with his Lego Millenium Falcon.

G really, really wanted Anakin's Y-wing fighter. He got it!

He was pretty happy about his new Lego Star Wars shirt, too!

E's godmother sent her the cloak for her Elizabeth American Girl doll.

S was super excited to find that he'd gotten some Star Wars Galactic Heroes.

(Are you catching this year's pervasive Star Wars theme?)

But almost nothing can beat stomping on and popping bubble wrap!

F wins the prize for the best expression captured on camera!

She's been saying for weeks and weeks that she wanted an iPod (something to play music). We got her an MP3 player, and she was beyond thrilled! F spent much of the night walking around with the earbuds in, dancing and singing. (I'd asked her the other day what some of her favorite songs were, and last night Josh downloaded a bunch from online to her MP3 player.)

After all the gifts were opened

I love this one of the girls together. E is showing F her camcorder.

Hard at work already

(Day 356 of 365)

E's 11th Birthday

Eleven years ago I became a mom for the first time! No matter what others say to the person with a birthday at Christmastime, how it must stink to have your birthday so close to such a big celebration, I must say that from the parents' perspective, having a baby, especially your first, at Christmastime is such a special experience. I know that I felt a special connection with Mary as I cradled my own baby in my arms that Christmas in 1998. A whole new understanding permeated the words, "But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." (Luke 2:19 NIV)

And now, 11 years later, our sweet little Christmas bundle is growing into a beautiful young woman, inside and out.

E received a mini My Little Pony from her siblings ...

... an instruction book on how to draw fairies and a Never Fairies book from her godmother ...

... and a horse latchhook from Josh and me, perfect for our craft-loving horse lover!

My parents and sister were able to come celebrate with us, too. Grammy and Grandpa gave E an art kit with all kids of art supplies in it.

E chose spaghettios, garlic bread, and mixed raspberries, blackberries, and blueberries for her birthday supper. However, most of the people in our house don't like spaghettios, so I made spaghetti, too. E and F enjoyed the spaghettios while the rest of us ate spaghetti.

E with her cake she made and decorated

Putting all 11 candles in her cake

Happy birthday, E!

(Day 355 of 365)