Christmas Day

The kids slept late after a fun Christmas Eve party at the C's. Evyn woke first, and insisted that I get Andrew up so they could spy their stash together.

She was overjoyed when she ran into the living room and found evidence that Santa had visited!
(click pictures to enlarge)







Both kids loved the kitchen set that Santa brought for them. Hands-down, Andrew's favorite gift was the vacuum cleaner. Not even a chocolate-filled candy cane could convince him to put down the vacuum:


Later in the afternoon we went to Grams & Pops' house. Evyn crashed on the sofa- it took a while to get her to wake up and open gifts!

Christmas tree shopping

Last weekend we took advantage of the weather and
let the kids pick out our Christmas tree.

It was a slow start, with Evyn being indecisive
and Andrew being a bit too mellow.






Eventually, we picked "the perfect tree."
The kids posed with their find before cutting it down:




Back at home, we decorated while Andrew napped.

Reed family Christmas - 2010

This weekend, Julie's Grandmother Reed hosted a Christmas party for the extended family in the community room of her apartment building (click pictures to enlarge).



The kids all enjoyed the gym equipment.







Evyn (the blur below) wore a dress that Julie wore for the Reed Christmas gathering 31 (!) years ago.

On the third day of Christmas....

our tree

...we went to the C's for the Reed family gathering (Saturday December 26th). Andrew was extremely clingy - my guess is he was overstimulated from three days of celebrating- so I didn't have a chance to take many pictures. We ended up leaving pretty early, to get Mr. Cranky home and into bed.

riding Andrew's new trike before the party

Larry, Scott and Grandpa Reed talking bourbon

Alex, Evyn and Emily

Keisha

Olivia and Vince

On a side note, my plan to catch our blog up to date over the weekend was thwarted by a certain inquisitive little boy.... Andrew was able to find the end of the USB cord that connects our camera to our computer, and apparently shorted it out with drool. I can still transfer pictures manually - but it's a much slower process!

Christmas 2009

Today is the last day of winter break. What a busy two weeks it has been! Evyn has been home from school for 12 days - and I must admit, I've loved every minute of it. She is excited to go back to school. Yesterday she received a letter in the mail from her teacher, and a classmate stopped by, making her even more eager to return to class.

My goal for this windy, cold last day of winter break is to get caught up on posting our holiday pictures- starting with Christmas day~



Christmas morning both kids were up at their usual time, despite the late evening prior. Evyn quickly found the gifts from Santa* under the tree. Andrew, again, was less enthused about gifts than he was the bells and ribbons on the packages.






Two of Santa's gifts were instant favorites... a china tea set, which- by request- was immediately washed and put to use, and a working cash register (Evyn already has plans for more sales).




Andrew liked the saucer sled that Santa brought!





After Andrew's much-needed nap, we were ready for our afternoon guests - Grams, Pops, and Aunt Chris. And more gifts!




*A note about Santa- we'd been uncertain whether we would "do" Santa in our house. The first few years, we didn't. Scott's parents had taken Evyn to see a Santa each year, but she never really asked questions or showed an interest, until last year (which coincided with watching Polar Express for the first time). This year she made a decision - yes, by choice!- that she was going to believe in Santa. We have a funny video of her, declaring her decision, if I can figure out how to edit it I'll post it.

Christmas 2008

We got home late (and full from much tasty Italian food!) Christmas Eve from Lori & Larry's. It was midnight by the time Evyn got her snack arranged for Santa 's arrival: cookies and chocolate milk, plus carrots and an apple for the reindeer.


Christmas morning we all slept in, then lounged around in our pj's opening Evyn's gifts.



Santa remembered to bring glitter glue! Evyn was overjoyed.



Don't worry, she'll grow into it! We got her the Yamaha CGS102 half size classical acoustic guitar. I think Scott and Evyn will be learning together.



She wasn't interested in using the pick, she preferred to use her fingers - like she saw her cousin Elisabeth do the night before. One of the reasons we chose the Yamaha was for the finger-friendly nylon strings.


Balloon rockets! Probably her least-expensive gift... and the one she's enjoyed the most so far.




After lunchtime we made our way to Scott's parents house for more gifts, and dinner.


I should have taken pictures of Evyn & Scott playing
the Hyper Dash game - lots of fun!


Evyn sneaked up on us with the camera and caught this shot: