Christmas

On Christmas Eve our good friends, the Van Doeselaars, came over for dinner and to exchange gifts. Rena was in Indonesia, but her husband, Scott, and 2 boys were able to come. Nick and Ethan exchanged Star Wars transformers, Ryan got a book, and Mia a sleeping bag.

Mia on her rocking horse...she really jams!
Nick opened some presents early; this gift is from Aunt Viki, my sister with 10 or 20 horses (I lost count) This is a Star Wars book from Babcia.
Nick gave us a book his kindergarten class created for the parents for Christmas this year. Each child was given a topic and was told to describe what it meant to him or her and to draw a picture. Nick's topic was "family".
Nick writes "Family is having a Mom and Dad and people who love you". He drew a picture of our family and our house. This was absolutley my favorite gift.

Nick and Daddy tracking Santa on Norad's website.

John putting together Mia's play kitchen.

On Christmas morning Nick came into our room at about 9am. He had already checked downstairs to see if Santa had already come...and he had. We quickly woke up Mia and went downstairs to check it out.Mia and her new"doGIEEEEE!" (this is her favorite word).


Mia playing with her new kitchen Mia on her new scooter...she will have to grow into this one.
Nick playing behind his new telescope.

My friend, Lyn, came over later in the day for a late lunch. It was so nice of her to bring over an entire lunch with turkey, stuffing, etc. All we had to do was heat it up. Thanks Lyn!! We usually see each other once a year for one of the holidays. We played games and she showed us her pictures from Africa and Antartica. She loves to travel, and will be going to Vietnam in January...I am so jealous...I love Vietnam. It was great to see her. Again, I was not good about taking pictures. I think Nick took this one of her computer (you can see only her hand).

We had a wonderful Christmas...the best part was visiting with family and friends. And we appreciate the gifts!! Thank you!! And of course, a big thanks to Santa and his elves at the North Pole.