Merry Christmas!

We have had quite the eventful week! Every year at Christmas time, Justin's family does a Christmas Dinner that occurs sometime in the week before Christmas when everyone can be there. This year, it was on Monday night. So we were planning on driving down Monday after work and then staying the rest of the week. Well, on Sunday afternoon we decided to check the weather and saw the huge storm (8-16" of snow projected) and decided that it would be safer to drive down on Sunday afternoon and beat the storm. That worked out all well and good, except that I was planning to spend Monday doing laundry and packing for the week. So I had about 1 hour to pack and we had to take all of our dirty laundry down with us. Man, it was pretty crazy trying to cram Christmas presents, clothes for a week, dirty laundry, etc. etc. into the bug. But, we made it! We had a great week and a fun Christmas. The only bad thing is that a nasty stomach flu struck on Christmas Eve. Justin spent the day in bed, his brother Lance got sick that afternoon, Mom got it at dinner time, and it hit me around 10pm. Most of us were feeling better by the end of Christmas day, but then Dad got sick that night and Lucas, our nephew got sick early the next morning. Poor guy! Luckily, it was a fast-acting flu and was gone quickly.

Most exciting of all this week, Josie got her first tooth! It showed up on Saturday afternoon, and I can see the one next to it trying to come in as well. What a big girl!! I haven't taken a picture of her tooth because you can't see it too well yet, but you sure can feel it when she chomps down on your finger!

Here are the pictures from the week. I'm expecting Josie to wake up any minute, so I'm not going to worry about the order of the pictures. If you start at the bottom and work your way up, you'll get the chronological order. Sorry! :)

Lunch time!

New clothes from Aunt Andrea and Uncle Sam. She looks adorable in them!

Riding the elephant.

All the kids wanted a turn on the elephant. Here's Lucas trying it out.

The best present of all! :)

Josie had to taste each present to make sure it was good. :)

Josie checking out her presents.

The Christmas tree.

Santa came! Here is what he left for our little family. (The elephant was for Josie. Shucks!)

We get new Jamies every Christmas Eve. This is the boys in their jamies. L-R: Mike, Brian, Zack, Dad, Tim, and Justin.

Here's the girls in their Jamies. L-R: Me, Kim, Tassia, Melinda, and Faith.

Josie in her new jamies.

On Monday after dinner, we did the family gift exchange. (We draw names between siblings and cousins.) Josie got this awesome scooter that converts to a walker from her cousin Tucker. She loves it!

Mom and Dad's snowy backyard. There was a break in the storm and it was gorgeous!

I think this was on Sunday morning. Josie has this new thing she does where she sticks something in her mouth and then just leaves it there while playing with another toy. It cracks us up!

I didn't get a picture of Josie in her Christmas dress because she spit up on it as soon as I got it on, and about 10 times at church. So she'll just have to wear it again for New Year's or something so I can get a picture. :) I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and enjoy the New Year!