Pics from Christmas '09

A week before Christmas we
got all that snow. Here's poor
Molly knocking to please come
inside. Okay, Girl, just let me
take a picture of you. You look
so sad and so sweet.










The boy lives and breathes
Ravens football. Sarah found
him this jersey at a secondhand
store and he wore it for
three days straight.




















The hands of my oldest son.












Daddy loved the old wind-up
train I gave him. He has such
fond memories of playing with
an electric train when he was a
boy.




Steve joined in making fun
of the size shirt I bought him. After years of underestimating how big the boys had gotten, I now err on the opposite side.















A gift card wreath I made
for my Secret Angel at school.








Christmas Eve, gift exchange.
Jay, Paul, and Ben. Something
must have been funny.






About a week before Christmas, Sarah bought a bunch of clothes for two little girls in need that she'd heard about. She came home from the thrift store with a stack and kept saying, "I had so much fun! Aren't these aDORable?"






Ben and Steve examining coins my mom gave each of the kids.







One photo I had fun playing
around with on Photoscape.
I'd love to paint my walls
like this!










Mama, always the educator.








I just gotta laugh about this batch of pictures. If you know me, you know I'm no all that great at multi-tasking if hosting is involved. I can cook OR talk, take pictures OR serve food, but despite my best intentions, I just asked Steve to grab the camera before he sat down and "quick, get some of us together. "

So here are some pics that are more like out-takes except these were "the best" we got. Oh, chuckles. We came back after Christmas Eve service to have a gift exchange with my parents and my sister Jill and her husband, Jay. This was something new, but we did it because snow and ice were expected Christmas Day, not a combo my parents wanted to attempt in the name of tradition. (I got to sit next to Daddy and hear him sing carols and "amen" the preacher, Jim Cannon, who happened to be an engineer years ago at the same place my dad worked on post. My mom stayed back at the house to rest.)

Despite my initial angst over changing plans, I found great joy this year in doing things differently. My mom was too busy to host this year; she was in the midst of planning to fly out to help her sister recuperate from major surgery. Jill --the one person I didn't get a single decent picture of--had just hosted a huge and wonderful T'giv dinner a month ago.
My other two sisters live in TX and AZ. So I was privileged to take the reins on this one, and I had peace about the change of date.

The biggest difference in my attitude came when I realized all the love in the family, and it really doesn't matter whose house we're at, or what the occasion, or the date on the calendar. It was a special Christmas, one of the best in my life.