Christmas Week

Whew! We had a full 5 days starting Christmas Eve. There are so many pictures and stories to share, but I will try to narrow them down to just the best ones. The picture to the left is showing an ornament given to me from the Capra's (my older sis Leann and her family). It is Parker and his cousin Lily in their Santa photos (Parker's photo is from 2007). OK... on to our 5 days of Christmas...

Christmas Eve

It's been a tradition for Jake's grandparents Art and Hallie to throw a Christmas Eve party and we've been going as a couple for the last 10 Christmases! Jake's cousins were little when I first joined the group, and now they're practically all grown up. We have some new additions to that side of the family (not all of whom could attend).

Youngest Baby - Alyssa (Jake's cousin's baby)

Jennae, Ken and Alyssa

Unfortunately, I didn't get too many pictures of the large group of attendees because Parker was running around like a crazy dude getting into trouble, but here are some fun shots of him from the night.

Christmas Day

Parker had gone to bed later than usual on Christmas Eve because of the party and so ended his week and a half or so streak of sleeping in. Seriously, he went from sleeping 12.5 - 13 hours to 10 that night. I blame it on the noisy reindeer outside his window. So we all got up early, put on the Channel 9/KOST 103 Yule Log, and let Parker open his gift from us and his great grandparents Art and Hallie. Strangely enough, he got puzzles from both them and us! He loved them and played with them all day. What a nice quiet way to spend a rainy Christmas day! I didn't even change out of my PJ's.

December 26th

My parents, younger brother Richie and younger sister Sarah came to visit. We spent most of the time chatting, taking a little walk, and then eating at Islands. Parker does not get to see my folks very often since they live in Texas, so they tried to spend as much time with him as possible. They had a fun time singing with him at the restaurant, and Parker showed off by eating almost his whole quesadilla, his whole container of applesauce and quite a few chips. He loves eating out because it's a huge treat after my so-so cooking.

With a little help from my strange father (OK, so you can see from where I inherited it), Parker also got to open a present from his Auntie Sarah. He got his very own computer! He was so thrilled!

December 27th

Yay! With the addition of Leann, Greg and Lily, my whole (immediate) family was finally together! We just spent the day hanging out, opening presents, cooking, eating and playing with the kids. Jake and I made soup and cornbread for lunch and then Leann made a fancy restaurant style meal with roasted lemon rosemary chicken, garlic mashed potatoes, asparagus and spinach salad. The only thing missing was the restaurant ambience... kids that wouldn't nap and folding tables in a tiny space made for quite the experience!

Auntie Sarah and the Capra's went all out with the presents. There were some fun gag gifts, including the huge magnifying lenses for my Dad, Brown Bread (we seriously used to eat this bread from a can all the time), and mopping slippers. Parker was hooked up with quite a few gifts by the Capra's, but his favorite gift from them was a huge noisy police car. My parents' gift for Parker arrived in the mail just in time and he had gotten a huge bead roller coaster toy from them (like the kind in dr.'s offices). He loves playing with it and asks to have it brought from his room to the living room every morning.

Below are some more fun photos from the day.

December 28th

We finally got a chance to get together with Jake's immediate family and his grandparents Chet and Betty. Jake's mom had made all her usual Christmas goodies and Jake and I had fun helping to decorate the sugar cookies. Parker was too enthralled with toys to want to participate, as much as I tried to coerce him.

But boy did we get hooked up this day! Parker got slippers, a whole Thomas the Tank Engine track along with a bunch of other engines and trains, an electric Lightening McQueen car, a fun interactive book from Chet and Betty, and his most exciting gift: his first tricycle! We had a blast trying it out that day and Dada has been taking him out on it almost every day since. Thank you Gma and Gpa Munns!

All in all it was a great Christmas and we are so grateful for the sacrifices that my family made to get here and for the generosity all our family bestowed on us this year. Now we are just enjoying having Jake home until Monday. Parker has been loving getting so much extra Dada time in.