Christmas morning and Zoo Lights!

Christmas Morning

All of the kids have been enjoying Henry's kitchen. He is so cute pretending to eat food and sharing it. He is so young to be play acting already.

Katie got the perfect toy for her. You press down on it and it starts scooting across the floor at full speed. She loves following it.

Rowan has been in love with planes since last summer. He got an aircraft carrier and 3 of the planes that go with it.

Traditional Christmas Breakfast out

Not so traditional, this year it was at IHOP.

Henry and his parents :)

Jess and their goofy eldest son.

Joylynn and the rest of their bunch.

The newlyweds C & C

Krystle and Hayden

Table for 20. Don't know how many more we can add and we'll have to get a banquet room for ourselves at some restaurant.

Aunty Coco and her Mother-in-law made pajamas

Courtney and Joanne sewed flannel pj pants for each of the kids. They did such a nice job! This picture of the 6 kids doesn't show off the fabrics so well but they fit the kids personalities perfectly.

A special little surprise

Logan's Grandmum sent a package and tucked in a couple of silk scarves for the girls. Genevieve and Danika are planning on wearing them for special occasions as shawls but today they were super hero capes. What a special surprise. It was so thoughtful of Sally!

Heading to Zoo Lights

There was some typical pushing and tussling in the entryway before we loaded up and headed out. They still are so cute all bundled up for the cold and rain.

Traditional stop to take a picture. Wyatt is being less than cooperative and is standing behind Cherise. Har stayed home with the baby, who had the sniffles.

Baby's first Christmas train ride! Her brother is an old pro.

Krystle and Nate met up with us for hot chocolate and then did their own train ride and tour of the lights.

Wyatt and Genevieve stopped by the concert lawn.

Rowan and Danika got the royal coach to ride in. Danika is always referring to Rowan as her "prince". It drives my boys crazy because they think she really believes she is a princess. I do believe all little girls are.

I love all the lights! I could have done without the pouring down rain but one good thing about going there tonight. Great parking, no line for the train and a wide open walkway that you can keep track of your whole group easily. Next year I want my Hubby with me. It's a magical place for a wintery date.

Christmas EVE 2010!

The tree awaiting presents

We, like a lot of folks, open one present on Christmas eve. It is a pair of new pjs. Pajamas x 18 this year. For the past couple of years I have had the married couples buy each other their pajamas. I still get the ones for our single kids and the grands. Cherise did order Henry's and Lys picked up Rowan's so that was nice too.

The littlest Grands

It was baby's first Christmas for Katie and Garrett even though these 3 were born within 10 months of each other. Henry had his 1st Christmas last year in Michigan.

Ho Ho Ho

One of the gift boxes had a Santa face... the kids had a fun time pretending to be the jolly old elf.

Prancer... I think

I don't know if this reindeer is supposed to be Prancer but the name fits. This is Rowan's new ornament for the year. It so depicts his active life right now.

RED pants!

Five pairs of jammie pants ended up having red in them... thus the pose.

Cookies, milk and a candy cane

Wyatt always makes sure there is a snack for Santa. He talked to Santa at a party last week and found out that candy canes are a favorite. Who knew?

"Momma in her kerchief and I in my cap"

Not exactly the way it was written but hey... this is 2010. The old couple headed off to the west bedroom for a brief sleep.

"Not a creature was stirring".... I guess that included Max.

It was a lovely eve and I have more photos to share of Christmas day and all that but I'll do them at another time.

32nd anniversary of my 21st year

If the title of this post confuses you it just means

Today is my Birthday!

I took a self portrait in the car just like all the teenagers do.

Lunch at Pho Jasmine

Krystle treated me to lunch at a place near the college she goes to. She even has a special table that she likes to sit at. She always orders the same entree. It is always without peppers and onions. I had Lemongrass Beef. It was delicious!

Surprise flower delivery and my cake

My friend Kass brought flowers over while I was gone today. Harlan bought me some too so I combined bouquets and rearranged until I had 2 lovely arrangements that make me smile.

My chocolate cake with raspberry filling was a hit with the grandchildren! The bulb looking decorations are rings! Those were a huge hit as well.

Dinner out with My Hubby

Harlan and I left our houseful of children and grandchildren to go out and have a quiet dinner. It turns out that one of our favorite restaurants is closed on Monday nights. But the other restaurant that is attached to it was open and they were able to get us seated pretty quickly despite many office parties and other celebrations going on this evening. "Tis the Season"

Newlyweds are funny

We bought Courtney and Charlie t-shirts for them to wear during the holidays. Oh what fun!

Festive outings and new hats

Taking advantage of the early risers

The "babies" wake up much earlier than the older kids so we grabbed the three youngest and managed to get out of the house for a quick breakfast at Cadillac Cafe. We got there shortly after it opened at 6 a.m. Har and I wanted to spend some time with a couple of our girls at someplace that was special to them. It happened to be Alyssa and Logan's 5th anniversary that day as well so we had something extra special to celebrate.

Lyssa is trying to get Katie to drink formula. She is pretty good with a sippy cup but this bottle thing didn't work so well. While Garrett looks like he can hardly wait for his breakfast.

Henry was not grumpy though he looks like it here. He was eating a banana that his mom brought along to keep him from getting too hungry.

I snapped a couple of pictures in the restaurant. They have done such a nice job of decorating for the season. My favorites are the pink Christmas trees.

Hayden and me

I took a picture of Hayden and some random guy's reflections in the fireplace glass door. Hayden and I were having coffee and getting ready for the commute back to town after dropping Wyatt off at school.

Hats of the Season

I wanted Wyatt, Genevieve and Danika to have Santa hats since Rowan and Katie each have one. I found these 3 at Walgreens. So fun! Katie's new hat was purchase by her mom this morning. Isn't she an adorable little owl!

Mini Garage

Har and I were able to pick up the floor model of this 10ft x 20 ft canopy from Costco at a great discount. Having this is going to enable Har to work on our vehicles without getting totally soaked this winter. It's a pretty cool little shanty.

Hayden and Har got it basically put up a couple of weeks ago but they still needed to put the side closest to the house on and the end toward the road. They got it all buttoned up today. I'm sure Harlan isn't thrilled that both our vehicles need work but he is happy that he has a nice place to work on them now.