Picture a Christmas

The tree is down and all the ornaments are packed in boxes and stored under the stairs for another year. We had such a pleasant Christmas this year - easy going and not too busy. For Family dinner before Christmas, the grandkids (with some help from Tyler and Uncle William) put on a Christmas pageant. My kids got started talking about it weeks before and were stuck on the idea. They had a great time casting all their cousins in their respective roles - Scott as the Angel of the Lord, Benji as Joseph and little Helam as the Baby Jesus. Katherine got to be Mary by default -she was the only girl old enough for the job. Andrew got to play his dream role as one of the wise men. I'm not sure why this particular role appealed to him - maybe it was the "golden" box he got to carry. Both Katherine and Andrew agreed that Lida would make the perfect Christmas Star. She did too - until she ate it... At any rate, the pageant went well, and my children (at least) are planning to do it again next year.

These are our three shepherds. Aren't they cute? Mark kindly consented to be our Shepherd Herder - leading them on their journey to the "stable."

We got to spend Christmas at home this year - literally. We were supposed to go to Mom and Dad's for Christmas dinner, but they had so much snow in their driveway that they couldn't get out (even with chains on the 4-wheel drive!) and we couldn't get in. So, we spent the day hanging out at home playing games. Somehow we managed to end up with about 12 new games for Christmas this year and we played nearly every single one of them at least once. But in all that time there wasn't one fight or argument between Andrew and Katherine. It was truly a miracle!

Of all the new games we've played, these four are probably the favorites. We play them all at least once a day. (Word to the parents - "Mousetrap" is not for the faint of heart!)

The rest of Christmas break has gone smoothly enough. Tyler had nearly two weeks off this year and it has been so nice having him home. Andrew has had a lot of fun playing games with his dad and working on his model airplane. Yesterday, Tyler and he went out for lunch - just the two of them - and then to the library. Those of you who know my son won't be surprised to learn that he checked out yet another "Hank the Cowdog" book on CD. Katherine was invited to go out for pizza with her friend Kylie. She had great fun playing on the indoor playground at Leo's and came home full of excitement. In true sibling fashion, she was miffed that Andrew got to go out with Daddy while she was out having fun.

I have been exercising faithfully with no noticeable results. My one reservation about having another baby was the weight I knew I would gain after I had worked so hard to lose it in the first place. Well, I gained it all right - AFTER the baby was born. Ugh!! I'm glad the holidays are over and all the junk is out of my house. Now if I could just convice Lida to let me exercise without holding her...

Katherine celebrated her 7th birthday last Sunday. I think she had a good time playing with her cousins in the evening, but she was frustrated that we wouldn't let her open her presents until after dinner (because we hadn't wrapped them yet!). Here she is blowing out the candles on her Amercian Flag birthday cake. I have no idea what promted this fit of patriotism, but she had fun putting the "stars" on her cake.