December Memories, Part 2

Christmas Day...I took so many pictures, but apparently I didn't record the entire day, like the yummy traditional breakfast of egg casserole and cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting...YUM!  Oh well.  Suffice it to say that breakfast is always a hit on Christmas morning. :) 

Here are a few pics of kids opening presents.  Thankfully even though the stomach bug had hit Josiah and Ari the day before, Josiah was totally back to his normal goofy self by this morning, and Ari was a bit better and able to enjoy most of the day, although she was still running a fever (which later developed into a bad cold).

Big kids with a game from their aunt, uncle, and cousins in Ohio

Josiah with a new Lego Angry Birds set 

We got Julia some kitchen tools in her favorite color :)

Josiah was excited to get his very own BB gun!

Ari loved her new car from Papa and Grandma

A Lego Batman shirt from the Ohio grandparents!

A new tale in one of their favorite book collections

Daddy helps Ari open a Duplo train

This was Julia's response when she opened a new Wii game that was one of the top things she wanted!

Ari with her soft and silky sheep from Uncle Josh, Aunt Joanne, and cousins :)

Later in the day, my parents came over for dinner and more presents.  I love this pic of Julia and my dad (she had "borrowed" his extra pair of reading glasses, apparently)!  So funny.

Still later, we were able to FaceTime with the Ohio gang.  Here our kids are chatting with Levi, Ruth, and Eli (at least I think that's who's in the back).  They had a blast!  Since we weren't able to go be with everyone for Christmas, it was nice to hang out online for a little bit.

A few days after Christmas, we got another good snowstorm.  Just like last year (in fact, the same exact date!), our neighbor friends skiied down the road to our house for some sledding and playtime.  Here are Julia and our friends' daughters.  Snow bunnies!

Julia having more outside fun on another day, later that week.

Jim and the boys enjoyed digging a snow tunnel in a big mound of snow Jim had plowed.

Sisters!

Here you can see one end of the tunnel.  The kids also have a steep slide that they love to go down on the house side of the snowbank!

a Sam selfie :)

So now I'm caught up on December...hopefully next week (or before) I can share a few pics from January (you know, now that it's February... :D)!  I do have some other posts in the works too (mentally, at least).  I would love to be able to blog more than once a week, and maybe I'll get there eventually.  In the meantime, I'm glad I've been able to fit in posting on a regular basis once again.  It feels good to be back in a bit of a groove.  Thanks for reading!