A Christmas to blog about...

Here's a little about how our Christmas went, mixed in with a lot of pictures...On Christmas Eve, I went with the boys to pick up their cousins Simone and Evan from their hotel. We went to Stacy's house, where she had Alannah, Alyssa, Damien and Christopher. We rolled cut, baked and decorated Christmas cookies. (The pictures of that are on Stacy's camera because I forgot mine that day.) The plan for later that day was to go to the Children's Christmas Mass at our church, but it just didn't work out. So we went to Gramma's house and spent some time finishing her Christmas village and enjoyed a wonderful dinner with her and Uncle Mike.

Christmas morning...Amazingly enough, with their internal alarm clocks set for 6:30, the boys didn't get up until after 7! Zack came in the bed and snuggled for about two seconds, then jumped up, saying "It's Christmas, I'm gonna go see if Santa came!" When he discovered his Optimus Prime Transformer (the ONE thing he asked Santa for), he said "YESSSS!!" Xander was pretty excited about his train track and giraffe (the ONE thing he asked for), too. We got everybody dressed pretty quickly and went to Gramma's house again.

Our traditional Christmas breakfast is sausage balls, so we enjoyed them while opening presents and taking pictures...

Zack and Xander with Gramma (I couldn't get Xander to just smile!)

Zack's Geo Trax airport--both boys were excited about this one! Xander got more tracks and a remote control train, also.

Zack showing Gramma how his Christmas present for her works. It's a blinking rubbery rose from Dollar Tree. He also picked out an oven mitt and pot holders for her. He got Uncle Mike a birdhouse (so he could be friends with the birds) and a knock-off nerf gun.
Xander opening one of his puzzles

Zack and his sleep pants, but apparently, Zack's not big enough to fit into boys' size small, so they drag on the ground when he wears them.

Yeah, more transformers! At least he can transform these by himself.

I love this one because you can see Xander's cheek puffed out to where you know he's smiling.

After an easy lunch (of Christmas Eve leftovers), Mark and the boys and I brought Mike to the airport and headed over to The Hut. (When Jessianne was in college, this was where the Wesleyan Foundation met. She talked to someone and we were able to use it for our Christmas dinner. It had a fully-stocked kitchen, lots of seating, a pool table, and lots of room for the kids to run around. It was perfect for us!!)

Stacy and I while I was making truffles

The picture frame that I put together for Dad. It has 21 openings, enough for all of his grandchildren, grandchild-in-law, great-grandchild, and all (well, some at least) future grandchildren.

Eileen, Caroline and I

Super Zack's cape made by Aunt Mo! Zack loved it--he immediately put it on and started running around the room to make it fly behind him.

Daddy helping Xander with a puzzle

Most of the next generation: Simone, Tim, Zack, Xander, Stacy, Damien, Jenn, Christopher, Jessianne, Alyssa, Alannah, Charles and Evan. The only ones missing are Adam, Steve and Jonathan, and Dorothy and Addison, Adam's wife and daughter.

Four of the oldest grandchildren: Tim, Stacy, Jessianne and Charles. Whenever we get together, we have to have couch pictures.

Here's the whole crew...Eileen, Caroline, Jessianne, Keith, Damien, Alyssa, Danny, Dad, Christopher, Kevin, Cathy, Stacy, Tim, Charles, Alannah, Jeff, Simone, Mark, Xander, Ginny, Evan, me, Maureen, Jenn. Xander was kicking Ginny's head!

Wait a minute, someone was missing! He was playing "Zack-in-the-box!"

And here's our family...

Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas season and a wonderful 2010!!!