"Ghosts" of Christmas Present, Celebrating 2009

Below are just a few of my favorite Christmas memories from 2009 which we were able to capture on film. We sincerely hope your Christmas was blessed with wonderful memories, as well.

Merry Christmas!

Baking...we did a lot of it! Above, JSS is making
a Chocolate Bundt Cake to take to his Sunday
School Christmas Party that night. (I made a second
that day to take to our neighborhood Christmas Party.)

This is our Christmas Tree 2.0, erected and decorated
on Monday, Dec. 21st, when we found it on sale
at Hobby Lobby 50% off. Our first tree, a live one,
was the worst we've had yet. It was brittle, missing a LOT
of needles (which were all underneath) and only one strand
of about 10 strands of light even lit up, not that we could plug
it in because of the extreme fire hazard it posed! We had
a WONDERFUL time decorating the new tree (pre-lit, yay!)
and were blessed all week with a LIT tree that did not catch fire*.
*always a good thing

Christmas Eve around noon it began to snow...in earnest!
NONE of us remember EVER having a white Christmas,
so were were hopeful it would stick. A few hours later and
we had a light dusting on the ground (above) that kept
gathering until after dark. By Christmas morning we had
our first ever white Christmas! What a precious memory!

AMS started a family tradition about 5-6 years ago of
making trail mix for everyone and us watching a
Christmas movie on Christmas Eve day. Here
are a couple of great shots of the tradition-planner
herself, enjoying ELF (with our LIT Christmas tree behind her).

Here is what our yard/house looked like on
Christmas morning! WAHOO!!!!

COS started the gift-giving the day after Christmas.
She had a very good idea of what she wanted to give everyone
and was so excited she wanted to pass out her gifts first, too.
Above, she is giving AMS a box full of Taylor Swift stuff.

Above, COS is enjoying the way she hid JDS's gift in
many layers inside the box. He had to dig for it.

Above, COS attacked her Dad with the enthusiasm
she's had penned up for WEEKS waiting for him to
open his harmonica/how-to book set!

Above, JDS opening his purple hair dryer. He borrows
mine almost daily and we thought he might could use
his own when he went off to college in the fall. He blessed
us by saying, "I thought it would make a good gift." Apparently,
he'd been thinking along the same lines. :)

Our sweet Peter, waiting patiently in the window for
an available box or bag to climb into while we open gifts.

JDS enjoying a moment of triumph when his Dad
opened the two DVD set of James Bond movies he gave him.

Ender enjoying the warm comfort of a too-tiny
box for his size while COS pets him.

Poor COS about 5 minutes after she realized
that Dad's Swiss Army Knife isn't something
to handle without care. Bless her heart...

JDS's utter bewilderment is what I love in the
above photo, just when he finally got the thing
out of the box, but has NO IDEA what it is!
(2" memory foam mattress topper for his new bed)

I love the above photo because of the perspective.
It certainly looks like Simon has big shoes to fill!
I also love the accompanying look of "wha...?"
on his face! In reality, they are shoes that fit him. :)

Above, AMS just realized what her "big gift" was...
Seasons 2-7 of Gilmore Girls!

COS just saw that her "big gift" was a new bike!

Below is a series of shots of JSS when he opened
his "big gift." He got a fish tank & and reptile cage.
Look at the sheer elation on his precious face as
he says, "YES!!!" He didn't even ask for this, we
just know he loves catching critters!!

It's starting to sink in what this means...

Still contemplating while Dad opens his "big gift"
in the back ground...

There it is! The SCREAM that just HAD to make it's
way out of his body, bursting our eardrums, of course,
but conveying the depth of his joy, nonetheless.

Below, JDS opening the belt JSS bought for him,
which closes with a Dodge Viper's seat belt clasp.

JSS watching in anticipation as Dad opens
the gift he bought for him...a new drill.

Below, COS talking to her G'ma on the phone
Christmas night, complete with a lot of
tatoos she received in her stocking this year.

Below, our Christmas feast, complete with
Aunt Angie and cousin Sara. :)

The girls wrote (lyrics & music) a song about our
White Christmas and performed it for us after dinner!

Sweet Sara showing her Mom the Muny she got from
us for Christmas. :)

Below, Simon trying to figure out why his sister & brother-
in-law would give him a framed photo of some
politicians for Christmas.

Just JSS being silly.
He's so cute!

COS opening her gift from Amanda &
David...

She finally got it open! It took her literally about
5 minutes! It had a ton of packing tape on it, so much
that she used her TEETH to help her rip the box
apart! But the sweet triumph was worth it!