At the Park, with Cousins

On the last day that everyone was together at Christmas, we headed to the park for some outside playtime.

Andrew's first time on the swing!

He wasn't quite sure about it. Plus his puffy coat didn't help much.

Day After Christmas

On the day after Christmas, we took family photos. We had them done by Tara Vaughn, a friend of my from college, and they turned out great! The only problem was that it was scheduled in the morning, and it was pretty cold, thus all the little girls have red noses. :)

After a busy, formal morning, it was family jam time in the afternoon.

Christmas

On Christmas day, everyone was up around 7 am. But as we had Church at 9, the rule was that everyone could open their stockings but just look at the things under the tree.

Maddie modeling the jewelry and hair accessories in her stocking.

Emma modeling her accessories.

Benjamin loves his book!

All the girls helped empty Andrew's stocking.

Look what I found under the tree!

After Church, we attacked the tree. Warning: there are a LOT of pictures.

Andrew slept through most of the present opening, so Maddie helped us open his presents later.

He thinks they're pretty good.

Emma, Maddie, and their cousins are all readers and got many books for Christmas, so the afternoon was spent doing a lot of this:

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve started off with the highly anticipated arrival of Grandpoppy, who wasted no time in saying hi to his newest grandbabies.

Then he had a date with the girls in the playroom. There were several rounds of "doctor" (wherein the actual doctor played the patient), followed by a parade.

After dinner, the kids put on their jammies and everyone gathered around the tree. We read the Christmas story, then opened one present--books for everyone!

The 'Consin Cousins introduced us to a new tradition: luminarias.

A couple of family pictures, then it was off to bed: