Christmas 2009

I love this picture. It's not at all in focus, but I just think it's so precious!!

So I know this is over a month late, but.....

Anyway, we stuck to our normal Christmas traditions this year: Christmas Eve with the Gill Family, Christmas morning with our little family, and Christmas night with the Allan Family. I always love seeing Declan play with his cousins, he LOVES them all so much. And I'm always saying "he needs to see them more!" Perhaps that can be a New Years resolution....what? It's February? Ok, it can be a New Month resolution! :)

Ethan and Bella tearing into their gifts.

Such a beautiful girl!

Helping Dec open presents. Trev, thanks for telling me to look up. The ones where I'm looking down.....not so pretty! :)

Cheeseball!

So Ethan got a "Thomas the Tank Engine" book. Declan caught a glimpse of it, and then none of his presents mattered. All he wanted was the "choo choo".....I had no idea he had gotten so attached to Thomas.....uh....hmmm.....

Declan's first Elmo. An Original Tickle Me Elmo!

Our annual Cracker Crown picture.

What cute pj'd cousins!!!

After a rearrange, Ethan took Declan's hand! So sweet!

And Dec put his arm around Bella...

Um....and began choking her....?

And finished with a good tackle. Or steam roller. Did I say he loves his cousins? :)

Christmas morning. We got D a computer since he was always trying to use ours. He started playing with it right away, and it was SOOOO adorable!!

Now I bet you're wondering why I put a picture of Danny and Grace (yes, that's Grace with the monkey head on) dressed up as the Man in the Yellow Hat and Curious George. Well, the answer is three-fold:

1. Danny has always loved Curious George. He was sick a lot as a kid, even went into the hospital several times, and George was integral in getting him through that time. So what better way to pay tribute than to dress up as the two main characters for Halloween! (2005, by the way....that's pre-kids.)

2. To show you how awesome and dedicated my brother and sister-in-law are when it comes to Halloween costumes!! During their lives together they have been El Nino and La Nina (grey sweats with cotton balls attached, sombreros, a mustache for Danny, and squirt bottles to "rain" on people), Daisy's (green sweats with GIANT flowers head pieces. Danny got an award at work called the Daisy award....thus...the costumes.), Penguins, and Chickens. Grace is so amazingly creative and has made the costumes each year, including the paper mache George head you see her sporting in this photo. Seriously. Dedication!

3. (The reason that ties this all in, and yet shows what a very random tangent this is) Hopie put a "Man in the Yellow Hat" hat on at Christmas. Yup. That's it. :)

The kids and Danny playing the Ladybug Game.

Uncle Danny! Did you turn it into a drinking game?!?! :)

WOOO! Declan wins!!

Ok, I put this picture in because I was so amazed at how my son ate that night. I'm thinking this is after his first serving, but his plate looked the same after a SECOND piece of lasagna! That is a true miracle for Declan. Seriously Randy, it goes against nature...it is from God! :)

Sadly, that's all I got from the night. Once dinner was over and we started on presents, I wasn't real "on" with the camera. I was opening a lot of D's presents, so I didn't have time to take pictures. I assure you though, fun times were had!

Thank you Families for all the gifts! It is fun to see Declan play with his new toys, read his new books, and cuddle his big Frog! Yeah, Dec got a big frog stuffed animal that is "life size"....for him. He wasn't as big a fan when it came out of the bag, but now he LOVES it! And so do Trevor and I! Seriously, that thing is great to cuddle! :)

I leave you with our Christmas Card display. We totally felt the love this year, and I want to say thank you to everyone who sent us a card! Yours was (and still is) lovingly displayed! :) If yours seems a little buried.......then send it later next year! I learned the later you send a card, the more prime spot it gets! :)

(Yes, that is our card in there too.....and a picture of Jack Allan.....and a picture of me, Chantel, Bri and Megan from 1998.)