Our Christmas Break

WARNING: LONG POST, LOTS OF PICTURES AND VIDEOS! :)

I have been putting off blogging because I knew I had a ton of pictures and videos to sort through and decide which ones to post, etc. But I decided that since it is now the 8th of January, that I'd post Christmas in honor of my sister Andrea's birthday. (Happy Birthday Andrea!!) So here's a glimpse at our Christmas celebrations!
On the 23rd, we packed up our car and headed down to Justin's parents house for all the festivities. We stayed there until Sunday. we had our annual Christmas dinner with Justin's family. After dinner, we had our very own live nativity! We were lucky enough to have a brand new baby (Gavin!) to play the part of baby Jesus, with his parents as Mary and Joseph. The kids filled in the rest. Here are a few pictures:

The littlest shepherd got a little scared being up there "alone". So I had to sit with her and distract her with a sheep so she wouldn't cry.

On Christmas' Eve, we opened a present that, to our surprise, turned out to be a Sony HD flip video camera!! Thank you SO SO much!! (You know who you are!) So we hurried and plugged that in so the batteries would be charged in time for the party. That evening, we all got together at Mimi and Papa's house for some enchiladas and opening the sibling/cousin presents. We also go to open our new jamies--another tradition. :) I didn't get a picture of the kids in their jamies, but it was pretty cute!

Here's a video of Tucker and Josie opening their presents. They were the first to go, since the younger ones were either sleeping, or not there.

Christmas Morning!
It was such an exciting year for us this year, because Josie actually had some idea of what was going on. It was sooo cute. I wish I had gotten a picture before the kids got in the room, but here's the video of them all as they walk in. Its a long video, but in my opinion, the beginning is the best part. :)


Waiting ever so patiently on the stairs while we wait for Mimi and Papa to be ready.

Josie quickly figured out that a few of the things in her stocking were edible. She called them "nacks", and asked for "more nack" all morning (in a lot of the pictures, she has a mouthful!)

It was baby Gavin's first Christmas, so we had to get a little video! His eyebrows are the highlight...

Tucker got this cool rocking horse. You push his ears and he moves his head and tail and neighs and whinnies. Josie finally got a turn on him and kept asking for "more ears!"

A little later, Josie and Tucker got all the downstairs toys to themselves as the bigger kids played with their new toys. They were pretty thrilled.

On the 26th, we decided to go out and play in the snow. Josie has been wanting to ever since the snow stuck. So we finally gave in. She did some sledding on the little hill in the yard and we took her sledding with us down the big hill. She loved it! We got lots of adorable video, but there's only some much room in one post, right? Here are my favorite videos.

On Sunday, we went to church with Justin's parents and got to show off Josie's Christmas dress. We also celebrated the December birthdays.. I think I was burned out on taking pictures by this point because I didn't get a single one. And we celebrated Justin's birthday! Oh well...

We also went home on Sunday night to recover from the much partying. Josie helped me do all the laundry, and found a pair of my socks particularly appealing..

We wish we could have spent the holidays with all you family members all over the US, we missed you! We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas! Ours was fabulous!!!