Simply Having a Wonderful Christmas Time...

Look Grandma!!!! I am an Elf!

Our Christmas celebrations started on Thursday as we awaited the arrival of Hillary, Jake and Ricky. Gideon decided he wanted to be buddy the Elf so he stole the pants off of my little elf guy. He tried to steal the shirt too but was unsuccessful as it was sewn to the elf's head.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I woke up early to start the Christmas Eve baking. I even made authentic french toast for breakfast. After that the goody trays were assembled and wrapped to take to the neighbors.

Starting at 5:00 in the evening it was time to celebrate my birthday. There were so many candles it took 4 of us to light them all!

Gideon is a little intimidated by the inferno on the cake.

He helped me blow out my candles.

Cindy, you are 54 years old. What are you going to do now?
I am going to Disney World!!
(Thanks Cami, Jacob, Cali and Travis!)

A poster of my 11 grandchildren!

Practicing our songs for Christmas caroling!

Hillary practices with little Parker.

Ross and Logan give us some instrumental help.

Oh look at how Travis, Kelly, Jesse and Cathy practice.

At this point Ricky is probably thinking.... "The people are crazy. We don't do this in Venezuela!"

After Christmas Caroling we came back to the house and opened Secret Santa gifts. Gideon loved his hat from Aunt Jesse and Uncle Kelly.

"Whoa!!!" says Cali, "an unexpected gift I didn't wrap for myself!"

Ready for Bed and the tree that was swallowed by Christmas Gifts!

Ricky with the Kiddos!

Best we can figure, Santa showed up just before midnight.

He filled all nine stockings with candy, toys, socks, movies and an orange!

We moved the stockings away from the fireplace in case we got chocolate. We didn't want it to melt.

The Storers spent the night and we put there stockings on the couch.

The Christmas Haul for 4 families!

Our beautiful Christmas morning. As I looked at the pictures I tried to figure out why the date says Christmas Eve. I just realized there is a clock on the camera and mine was 12 hours behind. Believe me, it was Christmas Day.

Grandpa finds out he doesn't fit in the Toy Story Tent.

But Gideon fits just fine!

Cali's present wrapped in phone book paper and Blue Masking tape. Hillary's work of art.

Parker shares her new toy with Toby the dog.

Grandma!!!! Look at all of that stuff!!

Cowboy Ricky!

Gideon helps dad open his present.

Then he opens his own.

The aftermath.

We decided to wait until Sunday afternoon for our Traditional Christmas Dinner...

So Christmas afternoon we fixed up a snake (oops, it should be snack) table and played games.

Day after Christmas Dinner....

And finally.... a good nights sleep under our new duvet and duvet cover. And can I just say that it is like sleeping under a warm cloud!
I hope you had a Wonderful Christmas too!