Christmas

Whew!! We've survived another Christmas and this year was so much fun. Owen's finally old enough to REALLY enjoy it all and make it through the many days in a row of family and being out of any kind of routine.

The cousins came in on Friday and they got to spend the weekend together. Owen missed the annual cookie baking due to a fever but was fine by Saturday. We had the McAfee Christmas that day and Owen got lots of great presents. One of the favorites was the grape Furberry.


On Sunday we had more cousin time and went out to lunch and then had all of the kids over here to play. It is AMAZING to me how well the three of them get along. They can play for hours with virtually no fighting and no tears for Owen (a rarity). I know I've said it a million times but we really need to get to Austin!

Then we had the Hulshof family Christmas. Liz and Jim and the kids came down from Saint Louis. Owen and Evan had a great time together and both seem to have a fondness for gambling as exemplified by the intense concentration with the scratch and win cards.

On a funny note, Owen got a puzzle for Christmas and isn't a huge fan. He opened it and said loudly, "I hate puzzles!" So below is a picture of me gently reminding him that you always say thank you even if it's not something you wanted. :)

And then happier times after he was more polite opening presents.

Then on Christmas morning Colleen and Wayne and Mimi and Popi were here for Santa gift opening. After all of the gifts had been opened, we gave Owen a letter from Santa that said one present wouldn't fit down the chimney and that he needed to go look on the back porch. I expected screams of joy when he saw the four wheeler but instead he just said that "this is really cool" jumped on and about took out the screened in porch upstairs by ramming it into a pole. He does love the four wheeler and it is now the official mode of transportation to get the mail. Below is the all time worst present ever. It's a voice changer that only has one volume level which is incredibly loud. I have NO idea what Santa was thinking when she, I mean he, decided that Owen needed one.


Instead of Christmas dinner this year, we had brunch and both sides of the family got to hang out. Leigh and Adam and Mimi and Popi posed for a photo shoot so they would make it on the blog :)




I also got to spend some time with my best friend from high school Kim and her fiancee Eric. It was SO good to see her and Owen thinks Eric is pretty fun to play Wii with. He woke up the next morning and asked if they spent the night and was sad to hear that they had gone home.