Lack of photos lately=camera has been acting up + teens do not seem to like their photo taken as much as little kids! I did get a few on Christmas...in the van....on the ride home from Grammy's. So not the opening presents kind (got a few of the pets doing that the day before, at least) or the eating the big meal kind but a couple photos none the less. The theme of the day was British hats...not really! Everyone did get a hat in their stocking though, this was mainly because Trevor has asked for a UK flag hat and he didn't like the first few I found, it took awhile to get the right one. I didn't want all those other hats to go to waste so everyone got one for Christmas, adults included.
When the kids were little we always went to grandma's (my Mom) house for Christmas. We took a few years off when the kids were "middle sized" because it was hard for them to travel 2 hours each way on a day they just wanted to play with their new toys. As teens they travel much better and have the maturity to realize the toys will still be there and they can wait until the day after to use them.
We opened a few people gifts and all pet gifts on Christmas eve day, that helped spread things out. We attended a Christmas eve candlelight service and then came home and did stockings. On Christmas morning we had the rest of the gifts and then loaded up the van to head to grammy's. We were on the road by 9:30 which was pretty good. We got to my Mom's at 11:30, had a nice dinner and then had another set of stockings and a few gifts with Mom. We started home about 5:00 and once home everyone enjoyed their gifts, ate some leftovers, watched tv shows of their choice (which for the guys was Dr. Who Christmas special) and then headed to bed. It went really well.
Let's all try NOT to look at Mom's camera why don't we. Only dear sweet little Tristan still poses for me (LOL).
I didn't get a ton of animal Christmas pictures either but did get a few of the younger pups. It was Willow and Dartha's first Christmas! They enjoyed it very, very much.
A few days after Christmas they seemed to experience a let down, they got their gifts over several days. When that stopped they seemed to be expecting gifts every day!
It was also the first Christmas for some of our lizards. I don't think that they really noticed but they did get gifts of food including store bought dandelion greens (we're going to BUY something you can just pick in the yard?-(Bobby), well they're covered in snow and frozen ground now and those were their favorite in the summer (me)!
It was mostly a good time had by all, and we very much enjoyed a long break from homeschooling and homeschool co-op of 3 weeks (kids and me) and work- 11 days off (Bobby). Now we look towards our winter work (which includes me at the ski area), winter homeschool schedule (lighter load at co-op now drivers ed is done) and some skiing and snowboarding and for me wishing winter to hurry up and end!
