Christmas Mem'ries

The tree was delivered and set up last Sunday. It was a joint effort between all three boys. Plus one.

Hahaha.
Clint brought a friend to help. He too, wears his pants under his bum.

Max and Drew helped with lights and decorations...

Boys like blue lights. Ask anyone.

Moms like white lights. Ask anyone.
So he added a few strands of traditional white lights; the 'real' ones.

And Max was pretty adamant that no red baubles be used this year.
These boys and their strong opinions. Where did that come from?

Christmas morning.
Everyone played with their new 3D Gameboys for hours; (which I put with their stockings which I hid under the stairs. A ten-clued treasure hunt was their only way of finding their underwear filled stockings and accompanying last minute gift idea) - not in the least bit interested in opening any of gifts under the tree.

Nintendo saved another Christmas around here.
They reminisced about their favorite Christmas memories and they all remember clearly each Nintendo gift surprise... (the Wii was the big gift the Christmas we spent at Hemlock. They remembered me hiding the N64 in the oven...)

Finally, they took a break and opened the other gifts... like socks and shampoo and books and

color coded knives ...

We watched Lion King in BluRay on Christmas morning, to re-establish the real meaning of Christmas... and Clint sat cross-legged on the floor in front of the TV just like he did 20 years ago.

Ahhh.
I love being a mom.

Happy faces.

In the early afternoon, Drew and Max went to see their girls, so Clint and I walked around the neighbourhood.

Spectacular day for a stroll.

I will be thankful though, when the sun doesn't set at 4 pm.

Then, for supper, we met at Jule's new house.
Isn't her great room awesome?
See:

If felt like the olden days when we hung out at the cabin at Christmas...

Clint was our designated turkey carver:

Zac supervised.

Mom set the table:

And set out 'pretties' all over the house:

Daryl's kitchen. He does this for a living, and you can tell. AWESOME place to prepare meals.

Clint prayed, then we heaped delicious food onto our plates.

So, so good.
Seriously fantastic.

Annual photo of Zac's mashed potato volcano:

The 'kid's' table: Jake and Clint still to be seated.

And then we played games.
And laughed and laughed some more.
And oh we laughed.

I might scan the pages. But then again, I might not.
Just imagine a family of mostly not talented artists drawing things they have no business drawing.
Like, I drew a picture of two elephants mating.



It was not pretty.

And with that, Christmas was over.

Three things I'm thankful for:
1. I had all three boys over for two consecutive nights and it was simply wonderful.
2. I have a pretty awesome family. Thankful to my dad and mom for raising us.
3. Late nights and lazy mornings.

Shalom,