A Very Merry Christmas

                                   Merry Christmas Everyone!

Here are photos taken from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  On Christmas Eve we had appetizers for dinner and played some board games.  We also video chatted with the rest of the Schaefer's in St. Louis.  On Christmas Day, the kids actually slept until 7:00 and then it was Wii all day.  We stayed in our P.J.'s most of the day and played Wii sports, Guitar Hero and Dance Dance Revolution.  It was a great family day! 

Lucy, Olivia and Jack in front of the stockings.  They were really excited for Christmas Day to finally be here.

Olivia playing her violin for the Schaefers in St. Louis via video chat.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas via video chat, you gotta love modern technology.  :) 

Playing SORRY

Olivia and Lucy writing their letters to Santa

Christmas morning photos

This is how Jack looked most of Christmas Day

Lucy's Kindergarten Christmas Performance - 2008

I thought I would add some more photos.  The photos of the kids were taken the night of Lucy's performance and the one of Jeff and I was taken before Jeff's company Christmas party. 

Lucy loves wearing her Christmas dress and "clapping shoes"

Here is a video clip from Lucy's school Christmas program.  Our little Lucy, who is usually so shy really surprised us at the performance.  This is just one of the songs she sang, it shows her singing talent and great animation.   :)

Hint...before playing the video, scroll down and pause the playlist so the music doesn't interfere.  Enjoy!

Christmas Tree Day!

Last Saturday we went on our annual trip to Pike National Forest to get our Christmas tree.

This was our 8th year of Christmas tree-cutting.  It has become a great tradition and is honestly my favorite day of the year, I always look forward to it.  We enjoy spending the day with friends and looking for just the right tree. This year the Ingrams, O'Briens and the Gregory's joined us.  After, we had found our trees we had some yummy muffins, donuts, hot chocolate and spiced cider. The weather was great,  so warm in fact, we had to take our coats off.   I love this family tradition and hope we can continue it for years to come. 

Family photo

Looking for the perfect Christmas tree

Olivia, Emma and Sami

Group photo of the kids

The Ingrams

The O'Brien's

The Gregory's

Spice

Thanksgiving

We went to Boulder to spend Thanksgiving with Diane, Rick, Chris and Matthew.  We had a traditional dinner with all the extras.  Jeff and Rick had fun shopping all the Black Friday ads and planning their shopping excursions.  :)  We are lucky to have Jeff's sister and her family close by, so we can spend the holidays with them. 

Ewasko family photo

Jack and Lucy using cousin Chris as a human jungle gym.

Aunt Diane and Olivia

  

Lucy always has fun with Uncle Rick, she was making "big eyes" with him and laughing.  She adores Shu Shu (Uncle) Ricky.

Chris and Jack..."cheese"

The following weekend we got about 8 inches of snow.  These photos were taken early Saturday morning when we just had a few inches.   The kids played in the snow most of the day and Jeff helped them build a fort in the front yard.  

Jack was ready to go snowboarding.

Working hard building the fort