Christmas 2007

I am so late with everything. This post will be mostly Christmas pictures with captions so when I eventually turn my blogs into a scrapbook I will have these pictures.

Sweet Ainsley recieving a stuffed pig.

Christmas was great. Very busy though. Dan was on call and had to work right up thru Christmas Eve- late afternoon. Because he was on call we couldn't leave our general area and that meant it was just our family. It's been awhile since we did Christmas eve with just our family and it seemed a little lonely so we ended up getting together with some friends that don't have any family close by. We went over to Ryan and Emily P's house. They treated us to their Christmas Eve's tradition of won tons - crab Rangoon this time. They were unbelievable. We brought our tray of ring bologna, cheese, crackers and sweet/hot mustard. We had lots of fun eating and playing games. Dan's office had received a gift basket with lots of fancy items in it so Daniel brought home some caviar. Everybody (but me) tried it including all the kids. I'm not a fish fan and I'd had it before. The funniest thing was that the P's 2 year old daughter really liked it and had several crackers with caviar. Rich taste I guess. While the adults played some games the kids all decorated gingerbread houses. They did an awesome job and I wished I had taken pictures of them. We got home rather late and the kids opened the presents that they gave each other. Then it was off to bed for everyone.

Christmas morning we opened presents with just our own little family. Ainsley and Gregor both got bikes this year. Chase got an awesome medieval chess set with dragon heads at each corner of the board.

Chase tested his skills on as many people as he could find to play him on Christmas day. Here he is with Aunt Nantha.


Piper got the "Little People Nativity Set". She was very excited and as the people were being pulled from the box and handed to her she was screaming at Ainsley with all her intensity. She did NOT want Ainlsey to touch her new toy. Luckily later she was in the sharing mood and Ainsley and Curren received the lesson of Christ's birth and really enjoyed acting it out.

Because Daniel couldn't travel beyond a 15 miles radius from the hospital we hosted Christmas dinner at our house. It was a bustling place but I got a lot of help. Mom brought a cooked and sliced turkey and ham plus a the stuffing, a sweet potato casserole and huge chocolate cake. That meant I had easy stuff to prepare. I did a fruit salad, marshmallow salad, mashed potatoes, corn, rolls and a pumpkin pie. All in all we had our 6, my mom and dad, my brother, his wife and two boys, my grandparents and my aunt and her friend.

Here's Ainsley and Curren. They really get along well. They are exactly one year apart.

Brian and Stacy

Mom and her big Sis

Stacy and Slater

Piper and Papaw

We had a few performances since the boys have started music lessons. I think everyone really enjoyed it!! MacGregor started with 2 piano pieces.

Then Chase did a trombone piece followed by a piano piece. I was really surprised because I had been on the boys to practice something for that night and it had been a hassle to get them to do it. I was only asking Chase to do the trombone one but when he was finished he asked if he could do a piano one too. I was really shocked that he WANTED to perform in front of everyone more than he was asked. Who knew?

I also played a piano piece that I fell in love with this year. It was a beautiful arrangement of Silent Night and I was way more nervous than the boys and made more mistakes as well. I really don't like being in the spotlight. It's very uncomfortable.

As everyone else was packing up and getting ready to go home - Emily and Jeremy made it. They had packed up their moving truck and drove to Jeremy's sisters for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning and then headed up to our house. They arrived around 7pm and we had fun playing games with them for awhile. They got moved into their apartment the next day.

Here are a few random pictures of the kids.

Here's Ainsley dressed in her "Rosella, Island Princess Barbie" dress up clothes complete with peacock feathers. She's holding a pet shop animals set she received as a gift from Aunt Nantha and Gloria.

Here's MacGregor playing with Piper's new book. Crazy guy! Oh and in the background you can see the TV with a fire on it. It was a TV station that played instrumental Christmas music and had a roaring fire. That's what they had on all day - it was called Yule Log. We loved it and everyone swore that it really did heat up the room!
Here's Piper with her new baby. She was so funny with this baby. She would hug it and pat it's back. My mom kept saying that she was too little to know how to pat a baby.

Here's Chase with some new Pjs. I just think he looks cute and look at those "bedroom" eyes!

On Christmas night Chase and MacGregor went home with my Mom and Dad to spend the night. They grabbed their new pjs and some new toys and had a great time. My dad even let them stay up til 1:30 AM watching their new Ratatouille movie. Bad Papaw!!

They went to my parents because the next day Tyler, Brigham's little boy, was coming to my mom's to do Christmas with her and my dad. My mom thought that Tyler would have more fun if the boys were there. He loves the big boys!

Christmas 2007 was wonderful!!