Christmas 2009

(Caution: this is a long post...but is has been a while!)

Christmas this year started in Ca with Ryan's parents sending us our Christmas, so here is our little tree. We celebrated a couple days before we left for Maryland. This tree is the one we got when Kennedy was on chemo and we couldn't go anywhere that year...brings back memories. A lot of the ornaments have something to do with her as well.

He Loved his guitar...which has definitely added a new dimension to his dancing :)!

Mckinley of course loved the wrapping paper

So we flew to Maryland and Harrison kept asking for snow. Well, I say "maybe", knowing that it hardly EVER snows in Maryland and it certainly has never been a white Christmas for us there. And then THIS happens!!! (dreams do come true for little ones...)

We had more snow then EVER on record there. In 24 hours we ended with 21"!!! And it wasn't the icy eastern snow either...it was PURE POWDER!!! To bad no one skis there! It was truly a winter wonderland. The whole DC area shut down (metro stopped, school was out so an extra week for Christmas break...only my Dad had to go to work on a couple days later...the hospital never sleeps sadly!)

My Mom found these fun little snowball makers and Harrison had a blast! To bad the snow was such powder that it didn't stay together long!

My 16 bro made a snow fort for Harrison! Little bros are great!

In order to build a snowman we had to wait a day until the snow we shoveled (for hours the day before...) into big piles hardened and then dig chunks out to make big snowballs for the body because no matter how long I tried to hold the snow together, I'd set it down and it would literally fall to powder!

my little snowman

sand toys are very useful in the snow

are they not identical (in the cutest way)?? She it totally Ryan!!

SLEDDING!!!

Christmas Eve Dinner

I used to love sitting by the fire and watching it...feel the warmth...lay on the ground and have it warm my feet...watch the flame....I'm falling asleep already...

my special girl

Caroling with the fam...Ryan always offers to take the pic for this one...or anything for that matter to get out of singing :)

I'm trying to act out Luke 2 with the nativity set for Harrison, it was quite humorous!

We always have the tradition of waiting at the top of the stairs before we go down to see was Santa brought us

now we have the Christmas tree by the fire place so we put the stockings on the stairs and went there first

and then Harrison ran to see what Santa brought...it was of course a wonderful morning for him. It was so fun to see this year the anticipation of it since he really understood!!! We all sat around and opened gifts and watched the kids amazed with their gifts (sorry, I thought you would get board with all those pics! Plus here is a pic of all of our pjs but of course not everyone (my brothers) would wear them!)

Since we live outside DC we decided to go to a couple of sights there and This is Mt. Vernon. It was George Washington's true home. I can't believe the he actually lived there (and the bed he actually dies in) when he wasn't being the leader of our Country. Truly amazing...he was led by the spirit and was a great man. It was a really neat trip, thought it was FREEZING!!! I think it was in the 20s with a wind chill much colder and this is humid cold...where it goes strait through you!!

here's Ry freezing in line with Mckinley! What a trouper :)! We also went to the national arboretum (I forgot the camera sorry) where they had some AMAZING models of all the monuments made from nature and a room filled with trains and little cities! Harrison loved it! I wish I could show you some pics!

A new form of skateboarding (the second time it snowed and my dad was shoveling walks...)

Harrison chilling with my little bro and sis in law

Harrison racing Mckinley for the crackers on the floor she dropped (no she doesn't eat them, just has a lot of fun playing with them while I try to feed her!)

Harrison's Haven (and we would catch him under the table eating the candy after it was built) this is also a tradition at our house.

"papa" and the kiddos

And Harrison showing Nathan and papa his excellent dance moves. It isn't a party without it.

And finally in an attempt to get out all of Harrison's energy before the long flight back home we went to Pump it up. He had a blast! Even Mckinley joined in! So we went there and then drove straight to the airport. I think it actually worked at first because he wanted to get on the plane and sit and eat. but after a couple hours of that he was done! (but the flight still had 4 hours to go...and man was I glad to get off that plane!)

And here we are...back home!