Monday, December 27, 2010

All together (Almost) for Christmas

Our home was filled with laughter and even more love this Christmas! Carynn, Jamie and Ty who live locally; Lynette, boyfriend Chris and Lynette's dogs Sammy and Daisey from the Seattle area; Bret, Laura and Ethan from Utah; Melinda from nearby and finally, thanks to modern technology, Landan from the Middle East joined us for Christmas. Follow the pictorial and narrative below for more.


A shot of our Christmas Eve dining table. Many hands in
the kitchen (and dining room) made cooking, set-up and
clean-up non stressful for Shanna Claus!

Michael and Shanna with newest family member Ethan Thomas
who turned 4 months old during his visit


Lovely Laura and Adorable Ethan



The children take turns putting the angel
on the tree.This year was Lynette's turn.
She used a "human" ladder to help her reach
the top of the 10' tree.


One of our traditions is reading Polar Express after the tree
is decorated. Ty really enjoyed listening to it
and following along this year.

Everyone stayed over Christmas Eve and on Christmas
morning here are the children and grandchildren
(and grand dogs) as they wait
in the stairwell for the all clear to come up and check their
stockings before presents are opened.
Left to right. Chris, Lynette with Sammy; Melinda holding Daisey;
Carynn holding Ty; Bret and Laura; Jamie holding Ethan.
All right everyone come on up....It's Christmas!



Melinda and Landan Skyped this Christmas after
presents were opened. (With the 12 1/2 hour time difference
it was late at night in the Middle East.)

In the background you see Carynn, Jamie and Ty
enjoying our traditional slow baked (all night) ham,
potato rolls and orange juice Christmas morning.

It was wonderful to be all together (almost) for Christmas!

Love, NS

1 comment:

Jamie and Carynn said...

That was definitely fun to be together for Christmas. Melinda - loved the footie pj's! 30 seconds to get a knife! hahaha.