Christmas catch-up

I don't even know where to begin. I am glad

that I thought to snap a few pictures during the

month of December because it is all blurring

together at this point. I blame it on all the

holiday traveling we did. But I will get to that

in a later post.....maybe

We had a little elf visiting our house to observe my children and their nearly

angelic behavior. His name is Eli, so naturally our not-so-

little-Eli spent some time on the shelf as well.

One of my most favorite parts about Christmas is getting

cards from all our friends and family. Taping them on the

back of a door is about as fancy as we get, but we love

love love them. Eli had a favorite card (Talbot boys in

scout unis??), he ripped it off of the door on a daily

basis and carried it around until Halle frantically

chased him down and got it back where it belonged.

Christmas morning was crazy early fun. We got the kids up at 6 am to open

presents so we could rush to the aiport at nine for the first group

headed to Phoenix. I only got these two shots of Em and Eli with their

favorite gifts before they left. (Good Job G + G Stoker!)

Em has been dying to get her own sewing machine and Santa

also surprised her with a guitar. Both are great gifts, but I

failed to think of all the parental involvement each will

require. Need. more. time.

Halle spent countless hours making and wrapping gifts

for all of us. She is so sweet. She asked for a "workshop"

and this is what I came up with. More holiday sewing

details here.

Santa also brought this furry little creature to join

in on the fun. "Bugsy" was a big hit for all but one

member of the family.......any guesses who?

Also a big hit, Ralphie's new air-soft gun. He has

been begging for this one for a while and the grandparents

came through for him. I have gotten quite good at

lecturing about the dangers of shooting eyes out and

never aiming at his sisters and I felt confident that

he would be responsible...........until I got beaned

in the backside this morning several times by my dear

husband. in front of the kids. good thing I have

extra padding in that area.

And finally, we drew names every week during the

month of December and then were supposed to

do "secret" nice things for each other. It wasn't one

of our more stellar years for this tradition.

I think this note left on my nightstand pretty much

sums up our efforts. It's the thought that counts, right?