Christmas

Christmas 2009 proved to be wonderful and magical!
For starters, Cory wasn't sick, I wasn't in labor, Gabey didn't throw up, and Lucas didn't wake up at 2:30 am Christmas morning (not that last Christmas wasn't memorable in its own way..I'll reminisce about that in the McKay's birthday post).
We enjoyed Christmas Eve festivities with the S&B Ras family, complete with a junk food supper (a tradition we've carried over from Cory's family), personalized emailed video messages from Santa Claus for each kid (VERY cool...in fact, in Lucas's words from his letter to Santa that night, "magical!"), Christmas jammies, and a re-enactment of the Nativity. A happy shepherd.

A wiseman, pointing to the star in the East.

An angel delivering the glad tidings to the shepherds (wait a minute...he bears a striking resemblance to the wiseman...)

The cast: Shepherd 1 (Lincoln), Sheep (McKay), Shepherd 2/Wiseman 2 (Gabey), Wiseman 1/Angel (Lucas), Mary (Brooke), Baby Jesus (Baby Natalie).

*not pictured: Joseph (Tad), most likely feeding the donkey after the long journey

I love Christmas jammies! And the boxes they come in!

Matchy-matchy Super Mario jammies!

Ready to see what Santa brought Christmas morning.

We'd told the kiddos they couldn't come wake us up before 6:00am. 6:00 on the dot, Lucas was whispering in my ear, "Mommy! It's 6:00!" Cory went downstairs to prep the ambiance (music, lights, fire) and Lucas woke up Gabey (we let McKay sleep; he joined us at about 7).

Santa did not disappoint (not to mention generous grandparents and aunts and uncles).

As it should be, Christmas day was spent (in jammies) putting together and playing with new toys, playing new games, eating too much, calling cousins and grandparents, and reading new books. Lucas said what we all felt (and how I always remembering feeling as a child), "I wish today would never end!"


And, although that day did end, the good times continued as we celebrated McKay's 1st birthday and enjoyed having Cory home for the entire week after Christmas!

Happy New Year

I saw this quote from an Apostle in our church on my sister's blog and found it very inspiring.

"...as a new year starts and we try to benefit from a proper view of what has gone before, I plead with you not to dwell on days now gone, nor to yearn vainly for yesterday however good those yesterdays may have been. The past is to be learned from but not lived in. We look back to claim the embers from glowing experiences but not the ashes. And when we have learned what we need to learn and have brought with us the best that we experienced, then we look ahead, we remember that faith is always pointed toward the future -- faith always has to do with blessings and truth and events that will yet be efficacious in our lives."

-- Jeffrey R. Holland

*From a talk given at Brigham Young University, January 13, 2009.

The National Tree

Two days before Christmas, we went with Scott and Brooke (have I mentioned how fun it is to have family out here?!) and their family to the National Christmas tree. I had the brilliant idea to begin the evening's festivities with dinner at IHOP. 2 reasons this was a brilliant idea: (1) Since I knew both Brooke and I would be doing a lot of cooking over the next week or so, a night off sounded perfect, and (2) kids eat free. Voila! Here we all are at IHOP...I don't know why you can't see Lucas or Tad, but they were there.

Then, it was off to the Tree.
And now, if I may be completely honest (which I will be, because if I can't be on my own blog, well, then...what's the point?). I remembered why we didn't go last year. You see, our first Christmas in DC (2007), we made the trip to see the tree. After messing with the metro, the cold, and tired kids, however, the actual time at the tree was hurried and not quite the magical memory we were hoping for. Last year, then, we weren't rushing out the door to do it again.

But, another year had passed, our memory was dim, Scott and Brooke are here now, and it seemed like a fun and festive thing to do.

Festive, yes.

And we are smiling in the pictures.

But...after messing with traffic, finding parking, C-O-L-D, tired kids, whiny kids (because they were cold and tired)...

All I'm sayin' is, if you're in town to visit us next Christmas (which we would completely welcome), and you want to go see the tree, please do not take offense if we say we'll wait for you back at the house with a crackling fire and hot chocolate.

Scooter

After the Storm

Laugh-Out Loud Funny

My sister-in-law Brooke showed me this post from her cousin's blog. Before I read it, my brother Scott told me it made him laugh so hard he couldn't breathe. No way, I thought, could it be that funny.

I laughed. A lot.
http://natalielarson.blogspot.com/2009/12/not-so-jolly.html

Baby it's cold outside...

Biggest snowstorm in the history of the world - or so DC media would want you to believe. Either way, it's a pretty big snow storm for the DC area, and we're only about half-way through the storm (when the pics were taken).