Christmas Day

At the rate I am going on updating our blog, it's going to be Valentine's Day by the time I finish. We have spent a few Christmases on our own but this is the first time our kids were old enough to really know what was going on. I thought for sure they would be up before us but John-David and I actually beat them. We didn't hear the pitter-patter of little feet until 7:30 A.M.

We decided to have breakfast before present opening, cruel torture I know, but Jackson was the only one who seemed to mind. I really need to designate John-David as the official family photographer because when I am in charge of the food for the holiday, which I always am, you tend to forget to take pictures. We did capture these shots of them while they were waiting to be served.

Jackson's typical open mouth shot. We are in luck this was before breakfast. Nobody wants to see that.

Jocey just chillin' waiting to be served.

Kelsey has the most awesome morning hair. If I don't put at least barrette's in it, we can't even see her eyes. A lioness at her finest.

After breakfast we had the kids line up. We wanted to do youngest to oldest but Jackson wasn't going to have that. After having a day of presents the day before to warm up on, he was already for some more paper ripping.

We were taking pictures of everything the kids were opening and then we realized, we don't need 9 zillion pictures of Christmas morning, so I am just picking out some of the highlights. Besides I don't think most people care what we got for Christmas but just like to know that we had a lovely one.

Kelsey still wins the award for most enthusiastic while opening presents. No matter what it was, it was exciting. Note: The pregnant belly in the lower left-hand corner. I avoided the camera the best I could. I really don't like my photo taken while pregnant. So there in my Christmas morning shot.

Grand opening of the castle. Jackson wanted to know if it's an evil one or not.

Dad getting so excited over yet another pair of pants.

Later on that afternoon John-David's brother, Doug and his family came up from North Carolina and the Philly Blacks came. John-David remembered to snap a picture of our feast( the kid table is not shown). There was 16 of us in all.

After some wild play and a few wrestling matches, we had a reading of the Christmas Story.

We had one boy and seven girls to work with us (cousin Kirsten is only 6 months old so she was exempt from having a role). There were a few tears shed over not getting selected for the role of Mary but there was tough competition. Pretty sure Jackson has job security with the role of Joseph for at least a few years. This was the best shot with the full cast. You'll notice that Joseph is practicing his Bo staff skills and although the bible records the Shepard's having sheep, what it leaves out is the lovely black and white dairy cow they also had. It was very exciting production to say the least.

After we sent all the cast to bed and the Philly Black's returned home, John-David broke out his Christmas present form me: Mario Kart. He and his brother Doug played and online game against the Gessel's in Iowa. It's amazing what technology is out there today. I think it's safe to say that he has enjoyed his present.

We had a wonderful Christmas filled with good food and lots of family. The best present of all was having John-David home for a whole week. I don't think we are going to be this lucky again for a few years.