Christmas wrap-up

So here are a couple more shots of our Christmas season, beginning with St. Nicholas' day earlier in December:

*ripriptearshred*

The babies always get something in their stockings too.

ooooooo....

om nom nom

Andy got lacing boards

The baby also got a Christmas outfit:

"Kiss Me: No Mistletoe Required"

we obey this injunction regularly -- who wouldn't, with that face?

Katie was exceptionally creative this Advent.  She made her own Advent calendar:

We now have so many Advent-y things that we couldn't even keep up with them all.  There were still several doors on the Advent calendars unopened by Christmas Eve, and we regularly removed big chunks of the Advent chain at a time.  No one felt gipped, though -- we were religious in our observance of taking turns blowing out the Advent candles.

We tried to spread the decorating out over different days in Advent, but ended up doing most of it right before Christmas (and even some right after).  That's okay -- everything got done eventually.

Andy is old enough to help decorate the tree now, too -- although he spent most of the time playing with the vehicle ornaments. :)

All gussied up for Christmas Eve Mass!  (We chickened out again regarding Midnight Mass -- one of these years we'll get back to it.)  Notice all the short sleeves -- it was ROASTING.  (and by "roasting" I mean 70s -- I was tempted to turn on the A/C while I was baking but REFUSED --  it was the middle of December for Pete's sake! It's a Matter of Principle!)

Dominic is wondering why he isn't in bed Right Now.

As you can see, Grandma stayed with us!  She came a couple days before Christmas and stayed until the day after New Year's.  It was a delight to have her with us.  She is very good at just fitting herself in to the family dynamic and jumping in wherever help is needed.  She was a real blessing to us, but most importantly just plain fun to have around.  Holidays are always better with extra family to share them with.  (I'll bet she was glad to get back to her nice, quiet house afterwards, though!)

We had lots of fun celebrating the 12 Days of Christmas -- it was a great way to spread out the fun.  Now, to finish Christmas cards!  Hey, we technically have until Feb. 2 to get them out, right?

Peace to you and yours,
the Pickles