Each Christmas is different here, I guess that is the way it goes when most of your children no longer live at home.
In 2008, our first Christmas in our new home, our kids' visits overlapped, with Rich's kids coming first and mine second. It was new and a little awkward, but fun just the same. And so lovely to be in our new home, TOGETHER.
Last year, we had all seven kids at home for the holidays and it was a bit of a madhouse! lol But good just the same.
This year, Rich's boys were here for the actual Christmas celebrations and his daughter couldn't make it. We hope to see her in January sometime. Christmas was quiet and nice. No snow or even cold weather.
Holly and Ben will arrive on January 2nd for a whirlwind belated Christmas celebration. That will be round two!
In the meantime, here are some photos from our Christmas 2010:
Feather trying to find the squeaker in her reindeer toy.
My girls, Heidi and Chloe reluctantly posing- nevermind that the light stinks, I was lucky to get both of them smiling in one photo... lol
Rich's boys, Zach and Ben
Molly getting in the middle of things- she was either under the tree or in a box
Rich trying out one of his new toys, an RC plane (they are apparently not as easy to fly as it looks!)
We didn't cook a turkey since Thanksgiving here was so late; we cooked a ham and a duck. A l'orange. A la Julia Child. Ahem.
NOT a good idea to cook a brand new dish on Christmas when you have company. Just sayin'.
It did turn out well, but I don't think it was worth all of the babysitting I had to do for it, nor was it worth the amount of stress it caused me over whether or not it would turn out! lol
Lesson learned.
The girls and I did the HUGE Thanksgiving cleanup, so we decided that the Christmas cleanup should be for the boys, and we hopped in the car to look at the neighborhood Christmas lights. Some of our neighbors really go all out- check it out!
There is another house that decorates every single square inch of their house and yard, and I took a little video. I will post it as soon as I figure out how to get it off of my camera!
As seen above, I got Rich an RC plane and here we are, out with the boys, trying to figure out how to fly it!
Lesson number one: Planes need a level place to take off from, and a bumpy lawn isn't it... So off we go from the park, over to the elementary school.
Notice how we are dressed? Does this look like Boxing Day weather to you? Not to this Canadian girl, it doesn't! But I'll take it! 60F at the end of December is pretty nice, I have to say.
Rich got it going! Flew it around for a bit, and then landed it in the tennis courts next to the elementary school lot we were at. lol There were some nice people playing tennis that caught it and gave it back.
Lesson number two: controlling one of these things IS a lot harder than it looks!
But I think he likes it. YAY!
