Merry Christmas!

...say what? It isn't Christmas anymore?! Aghhh...I knew my sense of time was off, but this is pretty bad. How come it's already mid January and I am just now posting these? Perhaps it's the little one year old I watch during the day. Oh yes, and the fact that I forgot my camera and had to steal these from Tammy. And the fact that when Tammy posted them on Walgreens to share, there were 454 pictures. Seriously folks, I kid you not. Almost five hundred pictures. Tammy is one picture taking fool. So I sifted down to our celebration at Shannon's and got these. Ahhh memories...

My sweet baby made out like a bandit! Amoung his gifts were these great alphabet blocks and an awesome Leap Frog table. It plays by itself in the middle of the night though, so I got my eye on it.


Here is my snowman that poops candy. Right out of his snowy white little bottom. It was pretty darn funny. He was part of our White Elephant gift exchange. Now, I am thinking of redefining White Elephant because the gifts this year ran the gamete from handy kitchen tools to a real-live bull castrater tool. I think we may need a few guidelines for next year. Maybe a definition of what White Elephant vs. Gag Gift is. I mean, if Josh really needed a castrater that badly then this year was right up his alley...but luckily we also threw in a Chinese Gift Exchange for even more of a twist...so believe it or not, that castrater got snatched right up. Funny, yes. Interested, no. Thank you very much.


My pooping snow man got snatched up too. I know, I know...who would want that? But whatever, because then I got to pick out something else. I should have stolen something but instead opted for opening a new gift and ended up with a book - Small Scale Farming. I am thinking the same thing as you..."this stuff was just lying around your house?" But since we are a family full of gardeners, this book was flipped though all afternoon. I ended up leaving it at my sister's house as a little surprise. See, that's the bad thing about hosting - you get a bunch of little surprises left behind.


Ha! Jessie went for the four foot, precariously wrapped gift. Everyone said don't go for the big one...but curiosity got the best of her! This was from me. We loved our little knight but he was doing more harm than protecting of our house. He is really sharp and Joseph loved to check him out...so he was donated to the White Elephant Christmas. Mom was sitting next to Little David and he leaned over to her and said "That's mine. It's going in my room. As long as it stays in the family I'll get it!" He looks good in David's room. I'll visit him often.


We played several mean games of Kerplunk.


I like this picture of dad and Michael looking stoic or bored or sleepy or something. Dad's hat is pink with sequins.


Sweet Cayden with the tow truck we gave him. I really wanted it myself!


Our sweet hostess and her baby girl. The weather was so beautiful that we spent much of the day outside. My baby got to jump on the trampoline for the first time and he loved it! Then Peter had to come and stir things up a bit so the mama bear in me came out and we got outta there. Always trying to super bounce everyone. With my fragile little boy right there. The nerve. Ha! Joseph was loving it and cried real tears when I took him off.

We squeezed Christmas in between naps so we had to jet off kinda early. It was a shame since we have so much fun when we are together, but when I tried to put Joseph down in his cousins room he just wasn't having it. Luckily dad's birthday was the 8th so we get to see each other again soon that time of the year. That post is next. After I sift through Tammy's 267 pictures of it.