Picture a Christmas

Holden declared it, "The best Christmas ever." Lili has been playing with her new baby and dolls non-stop. Asher is just happy to bounce around looking for stray candy and random toys. We had a wonderful family day on Tuesday. We didn't have any appointments--we spent the whole day at home with our treats and our toys.

Holden and Lili getting ready to open a big present from Santa.

Asher with his new bouncy balls.

Holden and his new black suit. "It's exactly what I wanted."

Lili with baby Stella. Stella has a pacifer that sticks to her face with a magnet.

Mark and Asher. Asher loved his new toothbrushes to chew on.

And the popcorn popper toy.

Holden talking to Grandma and Grandpa Brown on the phone.
Baby Stella is cute but she needs to be held and taken everywhere. Babies need lots of attention.

Holden playing with the Big Mack Playtown. He wrote Santa a letter asking for this toy when the very first toy ads appeared in the newspaper after Thanksgiving.

Before it got dark on Christmas, the kids and I put on all our winter gear and headed outside to play with our new snow toys. It was warm enough that the snow would pack together and Asher didn't start whining in the first two minutes--although he did rip off his mittens and hat.

When I tucked the kids in at night they wanted to know why we only had Christmas once a year. I told them it had to be that way or otherwise it wouldn't be exciting. Then we went through all the holidays and events that are coming up in the next year to look forward to. They happily snuggled under their blankets with these thoughts and went to sleep.