Christmas--It's the most wonderful time of the year!

Christmas Day 2009 was sunny, cold and lots of fun with family visitors dropping in for the ham buffet and the exciting sharing of gifts (thoughtful, humorous, beautifully wrapped, etc.), a treasure hunt, a special video chat with the Hillsboro Barkers (thanks for the tickets to see the Chinese performers!), the new Star Trek movie, Yahtzee, more food, and best wishes all around. Dad captured some of the emotions of the day on film and we’ll remember how wonderful it was to share time-honored traditions with the people we love. Thanks to all for all the toys and goodies!

Santa's Been!

Shiny red presents for Mom.

Yes, he's been a good boy!

Geo Swag and a planter from the Hardys!

A new CD..."Christmas with the Rat Pack!"

Personalized ornament..."The Hardy Boys, Butters & Moochie" with their little whiskered mugs.

If only it were real.

We got a beautiful brown woven basket, DVD of last year's Tabs' Christmas Concert, handmade greeting cards, mint/chocolate malt balls, and the Sierra Club calendar for Dad's office and a clever C3PO thumb drive from Autumn.

Personalized ornament..."Best Friends, Maki & Kaya" with their charming, happy little faces.

Autumn's phish gift...Trey...from the Hillsboro Barkers. Very creative and well done.

A big basket full of goodies from the Stansbury Barkers, including homemade applesauce, homemade scented soaps, a darling photo of Brie & Colby in the canyon, and a really cute M&M Nutcracker who dispenses dark chocolate candies.

Brielle was sooooo excited for me to open this gift. She kept saying "I won't tell you what it is!" as if she were trying to convince herself. And somehow she kept it in, but bursting when I finally discovered the surprise! Oh, the joys of Christmas.

A traditional fish ornament.

Green Bay Packers Mr. Potato Head.

Personalized snowman family ornament for Donette.

New clothes for Brie.

A Princess "Look & See" Book for Brie.

Craft projects using rocks.

Colby in his new Thomas the Train shirt.

Getting interested in his new Disney Book.

Confronting a dinosaur.

Leslie & David & Hannah Montana stickers.

The feast!!

The treasure hunt!

The hawk watches the celebrating/overindulgence.

Till we meet again.

Christmas Party Time

Poinsettias!

On December 6th I received a big beautiful bunch of poinsettias marking Dad and I's first date in 1968. I ususally look forward to/expect this annual gift from Dad, but this year I totally forgot...so I was happily surprised. Thanks, Laur, I love you, too!

These mugho pines just off the deck are commonly referred to as "the staging area." Little birds perch on the tip tops prior to zoning in on the feeder, 5 to 10 feet away. This photo was taken through the mini-blinds. Notice how many sparrows are about to hit the buffet!

The guests have arrived for the Christmas Party. Colby is happy...I wonder what he's looking forward to?

Brielle reading "Rudolph."

Paula and the grandkids watching the large Christmas train as it speeds (!) around under the piano. Laur and I bought this train which has many moving parts, lights and sound effects for Grandpa Russell in 1998. He liked trains and had many fabulous model trains through the years. Unfortunately he died just 2 weeks before Christmas and never saw this one. But Grandma Russell has had it going around her Christmas tree in Boise for 11 years. Now that she has moved, the train has moved to Farmington. What a lot of fun to watch!!

Getting ready for the big battle (dinner). Red is in.

Ms. Cheesebread (thanks A&L).

Ohhhhh, love those shrimp!

The clam chowder...I'll have to double the recipe next year!

The table is spread...including the sage sausage stuffed mushrooms and bubbly (thanks B&D).

The traditional Christmas sugar cookies...fun, but what a lot of work. I frosted them while watching The Nutcracker and the Tabs Christmas Program from a few years ago.

Close-up of a few.

Airie brought a really yummy Red Velvet Cake (thanks) minus the whole bottle of red food coloring.

The colorful cast of characters getting ready for the Nativity.

Dressed and ready to go...

Shepherds and sheep at the manger.

The wise man and women (Brie and Autumn's nose!) at the manger scene, with the sheep still hanging around.

A wise woman and a little lamb.

We're chiming Christmas carols on the metal pipes. We also had a fabulous talent show which Dad videoed but we didn't get any still shots. Dad says he'll put them on some CDs (it's probably about 15 minutes worth), 'cause I'm sure you'll want to see yourselves and relive the memorable performances at least one more time. Brielle sang the 12 Days of Christmas with Baron on the guitar. Colby, after an initial hesitation, read the Sweet Smells of Christmas classic book while Donette and Brie passed out the goodies to go with the story (see below). This year's "Airie and Abram's Sock Puppet Show" was everything we expected. The puppets were great (she had orange braids and he had a crocheted hat!) and threw marshmallow snowballs into the audience (some were tossed back!) to "Marshmallow World" by Johnny Mathis. We were all "taken aback" with Autumn and Leslie and David's daring rendition of Hannah Montana's Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree. David (as Hannah) was hilarious. The girls owe you big time, David. This year, Mom found at last the lyrics to the old "6 Pink Peppermints to Christmas" song that is an elementary school program memory for some of you kids. With great props and an amusing, frantic approach to "there's lots and lots of things for us do" it's hoped that no one noticed that she obviously didn't find time to practice it and was mostly confused!

These are the goodies that everyone received when Colby read his story with such a cute voice and inflections.

Mr. Potato Heads...we just had to play a round or two.

Mr. Ho Ho Ho...after losing 25 lbs. this year, we had to find some stuffing. Looks like we succeeded.

Colby checking out Santa's sack of toys and goodies.

oooooooo...something for me!

Baron, opening Christmas socks from Santa and Mom's Christmas sock-feet..

What did this good (?) little girl and boy get from Santa?

Brie and Colby enjoying their BIG pencils and Digger Dan and Princess Ornament filled with candy. It was really good to be together and celebrate with lots of food and activities. Thanks, family, for helping and participating. Dad and I thought it was great fun. See you on Christmas!