Christmas 2011

 Dinner at Nana and Poppy's.  I think we had 24.  We're so used to having that many that it doesn't even seem out of the ordinary.

 Emma at the little kids table.  The table originally had settings for 2- Ben and Andy and Emma was going to sit in the booster by me.  But once she saw that table, she claimed her seat and was NOT giving it up for anybody, especially not her brother.

 Emma's new rocking horse from Nana and Poppy.

 Anna and Ellie opening gifts at Nana and Poppy's.

 Our tree before we got started.  Notice the bottom 1/3 is bare.  The lights stopped working and Emma and Ben removed all the ornaments on the bottom.  Good thing it was about time to put it away.

 Emma LOVED her new shopping cart and in true girl fashion knew exactly what to do with it.

 I love this picture.  Look at her little toes.  She had just woken up and was unsure of what was going on.

 Big kids and some gifts.  Paul Jr opening his new leather bound Bible from his dad.  We all loved that Bible!

 Not sure what was going on in this picture, but Emma was not happy about it.

 Notice in the pic below that Ben is so excited about his gift and before he even closes his mouth from his elated scream, Emma has her hand on the gift, ready to take it.  Aren't kids fun??

 Super Ben

 Super Dad

Super Sam!

What a day.  We wanted to do so much because Zack was here for such a short time.  We had decided that after dinner at Nana and Poppy's, we'd come home, open gifts, play a game and then watch a movie, all the while eating "fun" snack foods.  Well, we opened the gifts, made it through 2 rounds of Twister and never even got the movie going.  We all made ourselves sick on the "fun" food, and some were even in bed by 9.  Too much of a good thing is not always a good thing.

But it was a great day and a fun weekend with the whole family together.  I'm beginning to accept the fact that this is going to happen more and more as my children grow up and move out.  It is bittersweet and almost unbelieveable that that much time has passed since Paul and I were moving out of our parents houses.

The Circle of Life.