Christmas Day with the Boyntons

We usually spend Christmas Eve and morning with the Hansons and Christmas Day with the Boyntons. This year we went up to Craig brothers house for dinner, games and of course a little football.

Craig's sister Cathy got a new puppy. Amanda loved to just sit and hold her. Anna is begging for a puppy....but those who know me know how much I love dogs.

My Christmas

For Christmas Craig surprised me with a new camera. I have been wanting this camera for months. I haven't figured out everything I can do with it but these are some picture I took playing around with the color feature. Hopefully this camera will greatly improve my pictures. I am excited too learn how to use it.

Santa Has Arrived

Once again another Christmas has come and gone. This year Santa did not seem to disappoint. We have not been so lucky in the past. There was the tramatic doll incident with Anna. The main lesson learned is: I don't care how short the line is do not take your kids to see Santa on Christmas Eve. This only opens up the door for disappointment. Besides that fact that Anna can find about anything to be upset about (mainly that her Nintendo DS had to charge before she could play it) Christmas was a success.

Zach got his Mountain Bike and is really excited to start mountain biking with Craig this summer.

Anna got her Nintendo DS and had hours of fun not letting the other kids play with it.

Amanda got a Disney doll and pony......if only all the kids were this easy.

Kayla go her Nintendo SP....Santa didn't feel like she was ready for a DS.

Christmas Eve

Well we had the annual acting of the nativity story at Grandma and Grandpa Hansons. This year only my family and Kristine's famiy were there. Even thought there was lower participation it still was great. Christmas Eve is probably my favorite day of the whole Christmas season because we focus more on the reason of Christmas instead of the gifts.

Here are the kids in their Christmas pajamas.

December Birthdays

For some reason my month of choice for having children was December. I will admit that winter is more pleasant than summer to be 9 months pregnant but December is already a crazy busy month without adding two birthdays to the mix. Zach's birthday is on the 8th and he turned 10. As has become custom we went to the Mayan restaurant with Kim and her family to celebrate all of the December birthday (she has 2 also) Luckily this still works for Amanda. I realize that in the very near future Amanda is not going to accept her birthday celebration being lumped in with Zach or that we have her cake on Christmas Eve when the family is all together. Mandy's birthday is the 23rd. She wasn't due until the middle of January but decided to give us an early Christmas present and arrived 3 weeks early. I was more than happy to have the tax break but I am sure that very soon I will be hearing about how bad it is to have a birthday that close to Christmas. Luckily Zach and Amanda have plenty of company when it comes to December birthdays. Of course Kerry's birthday is also in December as well as 3 of their Hanson cousins. This year Amanda is just excited to be 4 and loved that she kept getting lots of presents.

Festival of Trees

The girl's dance studio was invited to dance at the Festival of Trees again this year. It has been a tradition in our family to go to the festival of trees every years so it has been fun to go and watch the girls dance also. Mandy wasn't old enought to dance at the festival this year but she did get to wear the costume and for her that is really what is most important. The had there dance recital a couple of weeks later. I video taped the girls dances and if I can't figure out how to put video on my blog I will add them later....but that is more work than I have time for today.

This is Anna and Kayla in there costume and during their dances.

Kayla

I have been trying to get a good picture of Kayla. She is probably my messiest child. No matter what I do she usually looks like she just got up and has spilled dinner on her shirt. I love this picture. This was just before we got her hair cut because she decided to cut her own hair. I thought by age 7 they had out grown that stage. She also cut Mandy's but it was just the very end of a braid so the only way I knew about it was Mandy told on her.