Christmas 2010

Christmas was so fun! (Yes, I know its officially February – but better late than never, right?) We had a blast with all our family. We basically celebrated Christmas for about five days with various family members. We went to the metroplex and stayed with GG and Grandad (Tyler’s parents). The day we arrived, they were having an open house to celebrate the completion of their home renovation. Everything is beautiful and the party was lots of fun! The afternoon of the party, while Hank was supposed to be napping, he had fun with an entire bottle of baby powder, dusting not only himself, but the room. There was powder everywhere and it took quite a while to clean up. Hank had a blast and was so proud of himself, it was difficult to be annoyed – it was a pretty funny situation after all. We got everything cleaned in time for the party and everyone loved that room!

We went to Traci and Geoff’s house (Tyler’s sister and our brother-in-law) to celebrate Christmas the morning of Christmas Eve. We had a lovely breakfast with them, Ainsley, Grandad and Warren and Dorothy (Geoff’s parents in from VA). Actually, we had a lovely lunch with them too (GG joined us for lunch) and a wonderful time in between exchanging gifts, visiting and watching Hank and Ainsley play. In the evening, we went to church with cousins (and friends) Christiane, Monty, Micah and Johanna. We had a great time at Christmas Eve service. Its been a tradition in Sarah’s family to go to a candlelight service on Christmas Eve and we’ve been enjoying keeping that tradition in our own family. So no matter where we are on Christmas Eve, we try to find a candlelight service to go to as a family. When it came time for the candles, we let Hank have his new duck flashlight. We had no idea it would be so bright (ah, LEDs)! He shone his beam around and lit up the pastor and the walls. He thought it was so much fun! When it came time to lift our lights high in the air during “Silent Night”, Hank held up his little duck flashlight as high as he could reach and it made so many people smile seeing the little glowing duck face in the hands of a 2 year old earnestly holding it high and singing Silent Night. A wonderful memory for sure.

On Christmas Day, we hung out in pajamas with GG and Grandad exchanging gifts, visiting and playing with Hank. It was so wonderful and a rather refreshing change being so low-key (of course, all the photos from Christmas morning are of Hank since we weren’t interested in having pajama shots of ourselves for posterity). Grandad made a fabulous breakfast, as usual – Grandad makes really great breakfast – and we just enjoyed being together with no real schedule or demands on our time. That afternoon, we went to visit Granny and celebrate with her. Hank liked helping her open her presents. Tyler and I liked seeing her face light up with her beautiful smile. In the evening, Traci, Geoff and Ainsley came over to play. Hank just loves playing with his cousins which makes us very happy.

On Boxing Day, we left the metroplex for home and after a little nap for Hank, we went to Grandpa and Grandma’s (Sarah’s parents) house to celebrate with Sarah’s side of the family. It was wonderful seeing everyone there – Aunt Donna, Uncle Dick, Aunt Laura, Uncle Jon, Uncle Josh, Aunt Dayna, Uncle Ben, Aunt Nancy, Uncle Amos, Aunt Shannon, Tori, Alyssa, Michael, Megan, David, Christopher, Kai, James, Connor, Mia and Paul – Grandpa and Grandma had a full house! We had fun exchanging gifts and visiting with everyone. Hank had a blast playing with all his cousins. They played outside, they played inside – games, magic tricks, camping under the bed, playing with toys, telling jokes, reading stories, climbing the bunk bed in the kids room, riding new tricycles, eating lots of cookies, singing songs, taking photos – Hank slept *very* well that night. We had such a great time with all our family and love seeing the photos taken from Hank’s camera. Some were taken by his cousins, some Hank took himself. We think we’ll do that every year now because they’re so much fun!

Speaking of photos, here are photos from our various Christmas celebrations in no particular order. This is our largest gallery yet and we hope you enjoy it!

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