Our family is so blessed to have lots of family nearby to celebrate the holidays with, so we have had lots of celebrations with both sides of the family. The celebrations started back on Friday, December 17th with Danielle's side of the family. All the kids were soooo excited to have an early start on visiting with family, eating yummy food and opening Christmas gifts.
We took quite a few different family group shots; the kids were getting antsy with all the pictures. :-)
Here's Danielle & Danah with their Grandma Imogene (Dinah's mom).
And here is Danah with her boys and Taggert! LOL We took lots more, and the kids were quite happy when we were finished.
The gift exchange is a lot of fun. We take turns from youngest to oldest, opening gifts and exclaiming over everyone's presents. A few highlights:
Kyle received a new LEGO game, Atlantis. He was so psyched!
Delaney received the new Pictionary Man game. She's played it at a friend's house before and was definitely excited to get her own game.
I received a mug with the saying, "All I want for Christmas is PEACE on EARTH and really cute SHOES." Too funny!
And Kenny received a baking pan to make individual little brownies or whatever, so that each piece has its own nice nice crispy edge. (He's weird that way, the kids and I fight over the soft middle pieces.)
Then we went on to a couple of celebrations with Kenny's side of the family, starting with his mom's side.
Kyle was the designated Santa, announcing all the gifts and who they were from. Since Kyle's not known for his ability to be quiet and hold still, this was a perfect job for him -- keeping him busy throughout the evening. We also gave Dee the camera, and we ended up with quite a few unique shots from the celebration.
Kenny's sister Kim and her husband Ed, obviously having a good time. LOL
Their son Michael, cheesing it up mightily for the camera!
Kenny's Uncle Rich, giving quite the pose for the camera!
And who knows what Kenny was doing here! Then next thing we know, it's almost time for Christmas Day! On Christmas Eve, we let them open a gift each -- so they opened each other's gift. They got each other a DSi game -- do they know each other or what? Delaney got Kyle, "Zorro - Quest for Justice"; and Kyle got Delaney "Super Mario 64".
Kyle got a new MP3 player from Santa (which he was QUITE happy about), and Delaney got a couple of new wii games from Santa including The Beatles Rock Band (new songs for her guitar!). They received many other gifts; they are so lucky to have such nice things. After opening our Santa and immediate family gifts, we had Kenny's dad's side of the family over to our house.
A highlight of the celebration, was Michael receiving a $10 bill in a card and being so excited that he "mock fainted" on the ground in delight. Hilarious!
It always makes me think of a Clint Black song "Slow as Christmas" -- "Every Christmas day makes every other day seem long, And what seemed would never get here has so quickly come and gone." How true is that? It's hard to believe that the Christmas celebrations are now behind us.
We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and wish everyone the best for the new year!
Ken, Dani, Dee & Kyle
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