Christmas 2008

About to open her Heffalump movie. Santa found her The Heffalump Movie and Cinderella DVD for Christmas. It was a Christmas Miracle! :)

Aiden tearing up the paper. He would take little bits off at a time.

The new inflatable bouncer.

Justin's night off...a rare occassion. Emily told him, "Daddy, I need you. You have to come lay with me." They hung out on her little fold out Dora couch for half an hour, just snuggling under her little blanket. It was so cute.

Hard at work! We were making Christmas trees. Aiden's were very colorful. He would make a mark and then switch colors. This is quite scattered....sorry!

~It didn't seem like today was actually Christmas. For the last 5 years we have had Christmas at Justin's parents house on Christmas day. This year we are waiting until Jason and Heidi make it to town. Our date to celebrate is Jan. 2nd. This year we celebrated Christmas Day with my family. My parents and sisters came over to our house and made use of the new, longer table. It was so great breaking it in! The kids got to play with their older cousins and on their new inflatable bouncer. I asked Emily who it was from and she said, "AUNT NATALIE!" I of course called "Aunt Natalie" in Germany and told her they said thanks!! :) She just laughed. ~Natalie's husband, Frank, just got home from Iraq, I think on the 24th. He was wrapped in a box and Kaitlynn, their 3 yr old, tore off the paper and found him. Natalie had her video of it on Facebook. It was so nice to hear Natalie's excited voice on the video, as well!~ The kids(both mine and my sister's) were all so good and surprisingly calm this year. Aiden actually ripped paper off of boxes and pulled tissue paper out of bags...whether it was his or not is another story. He did really well, though. Last year Emily could have cared less about unwrapping things. She unwrapped her gifts this year to find a pink guitar from Aunt Mary Anne(to go along w the instruments she found her for her birthday...thanks for that!). We bought her a small keyboard, so now she has a ton of instruments to start her band! Emily and I sat up late on the 23rd(Justin was driving limos that night) and talked about stuff. I told her it was almost Jesus's birthday. She said, "oh, I am going to see Jesus in 3 days!" Hopefully she doesn't see him tomorrow! On Christmas Eve, Emily helped daddy make a big peanut butter cookie for Santa. Daddy had never made peanut butter cookies, so he pressed the cookie too thin. It was thin and hard after it baked. :) Santa ate it anyway! Emily was very excited that Santa liked her cookie. The family went with Granny and Papa this year to their church for Christmas Eve service. Emily saw the baby Jesus statue and said, "Oh, baby Jesus! He's so cute!" After church, we went to his parents and did our stockings. I received a wonderful Chinese wall calendar...as a joke. They had eaten at a Chinese buffet that was giving them out to guests, so I was the lucky one to get it in their stocking. Wonderful. It's on my wall in my kitchen now. HA! Justin and I will be enjoying our gift cards from my family for dinner soon, and I have already had the pleasure of watching my DVD from him... P.S. I LOVE YOU. I hinted bad for it! He's at work til 3 a.m. now, so I had some time to myself. He told me that since his new desk didn't have any new pictures on it, I had to get him some new ones with frames....or I was going to get divorce papers! So drastic, I know! :) I made him a poster collage with the pics from our Christmas shoot and put them in an 11x14 frame. He loved it. However, he didn't take it to work with him tonight. He might be hearing from my lawyer in the morning. :) ha ha. Well, it just wouldn't be Christmas without some huge news or happening....my "little" sister(she's 5 inches taller and 3 years younger) Carrie told us that she and Lyle are expecting a baby in August. Aiden will have a cousin close to his age now!