Merry Christmas!

Melanie woke up and got right to the gift-opening.  We decided that the fact that Joey wasn't up yet wasn't a deterrant.  She got right to it, and seemed to love the gift-opening.  Then Joey got up, and she opened all of HIS gifts.  Then she opened (or tried to) all of the gifts for everyone the rest of the weekend.  And that, my friends, is why Santa was very frugal with my kids this year.  Apparently it's not about what's inside the gift, but just that there IS a gift.  (the rest of the Christmas story will come later, that it's not really about the gift at all.....) 

We went to Frankfort for Christmas day.  We had a great time with my parents, and we also invited our next-door neighbors the Elams.  Our family friends Marshall&Phoebe Smith were also there, and we had a great time!!!  Matt, Julie, and Molly made it for dinner, which made Mel's day!  We had a great Christmas dinner, all prepared seemingly effortlessly by Gigi!!  Thank you Gigi &Poppy!!  Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of the kids with both of their grandparents.  Instead I got several pictures of them with Tom, our next-door neighbor, which are cute too!

Melanie, several times throughout the day, would stop and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.

Christmas Eve

We had a great Christmas as our new, larger family.  Christmas Eve, all four of us headed to church.  Melanie couldn't quite figure out if she wanted to go to the front to sing carols with the rest of the kids, sit through the service, or leave and come back a few times....  Joey got a prize for being dressed like Santa Claus (Mel was excited by the prize - a candy cane for her!)  We hadn't decorated at all, or even hung stockings, prior to Christmas Eve.  That evening, we baked cupcakes for Jesus' birthday, and we left one out, with a glass of milk "to wash it down," for Santa.  Melanie was thrilled to find out the next morning that Santa had eaten the cupcake, she was even more excited to find out that he came and left while she was sleeping and she didn't have to see him.  He also did some decorating while he was here, and left the living room looking a little more festive than before.   Melanie was very excited to identify all of the characters in the manger scene that Santa apparently put up.  As Poppy observed, "I didn't realize there were this many people at the birth of Jesus."  Thank you G&G Worzala for the nativity scene :)  Pictures above are of my two elves helping make Jesus' birthday cupcakes

Christmas at the Zoo

We did a great job of hitting the zoo right when the Christmas hours started.  We had front-row parking, got in, Melanie & Daddy got a fun Christmas train ride (my camera wasn't working properly!!) - Joe had his first visit with Santa Clause.  The photographer actually did a great job of getting his pose withOUT his terror - so let me know what you think of his face in this one :)  The fun thing about the picture is that Joey is wearing Jeff's sweater from when he was that size.  We assumed Melanie didn't want her picture with Santa - when she got off the train, she begged for it, so we took her back through the line, and then she realized that her original decision was what she would go with....

As we were leaving, the zoo, and Washington Street, were both PACKED - so keep this in mind for next year!!