Christmas 2007

So, below are a few pictures from Christmas morning. I don't have any of Christmas afternoon or dinner. We have misplaced our camera (or more accurately-we think it was misplaced for us by one of the little ones) and so we borrowed Jaleen's. The only reason this is a problem is because usually Jaleen and I combine our pictures since most holidays are pretty busy with 6 kids, friends, and family. Well, this year there was no combining of pictures, switching off of camera duty, so the morning is all we have...sorry! Some of the pictures that you will see is the "blockaded" stairs which causes quite the loud sound if broken through without permission, Garin falling down said booby-trapped stairs because he tripped on a box, Jonathan's wonderful wrapping job, everyone sitting down while opening gifts, Ryden just laying there (he did this all morning because he isn't feeling so hot), and just a few miscellaneous pictures of the morning. Please excuse the lack of make-up in all photos. The older I get the more I am thinking I need it! ;-) I made orange rolls to feast on for breakfast and Trevor & Jocelyn and family came over to enjoy some and exchange gifts too! Oh-and we had a wonderful Christmas afternoon and evening. My parents and little brothers came over in the morning to spend the remainder of the day with us. They brought a very yummy cranberry sauce and one of my favorites, deviled eggs. The kids had a GREAT time playing WII with everyone, I appreciated all of the help in the kitchen, and we loved just spending time with them! Our friends the Behers also came over for dinner in the evening. Poor little Nathaniel wasn't feeling so good Martha had to leave a bit early! But our dinner consisted of turkey, ham with a very good ham sauce that I will have to get the recipe for from Martha, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, deviled eggs, cranberry sauce, homemade rolls, red jello salad (a Pitt family tradition), a baked parmesan squash (another recipe I need), and green bean casserole. For dessert we stuffed ourselves some more with homemade pumpkin pie, a caramel pecan torte, french silk pie, and lemon meringue pie. I am thinking that the 26th should be called running day, burn the calories off day or something like that! ;-) Anyway, Christmas was wonderful. I think that my favorite part was reading the Christmas story with the kids in the morning and the discussion of the times, the circumstances of the Savior's birth, etc. I think this year was even more special in regards to the story and discussion. It really made Christmas morning start off right-the kids weren't even in a huge hurry to go down to the gifts! It was great! Merry Christmas everyone! (sorry so long...)

**I should mention that we were very lucky to have Jaleen, Chad, and Jonathan here! Chad is visiting us for the week and we are very excited! It was great to have him here for Christmas again! We missed having him last year!