Christmas Joy

So here is my much belated Christmas post.  I should preface this by saying that one of the main reasons it is so late is because I spent much of the past day and a half running around like a chicken with its head cut-off screaming: "Where's the camera?!?! Has anyone seen my camera?!?!"

Of course, I eventually found it exactly where I had packed it when we left Cincinnati.  Clearly my brain cells are fading fast!

Any who.  We began our Christmas festivities with a trip to Mac & Brigitte's new house on Christmas Eve.  Presents were opened, cousins played, everyone ate far too much, and all in all we had a grand old time.

I think Marin liked her Sing-a-ma-jig:

Emma, Aidan, & Adam:

Shannon absolutely ADORED her new Hello Kitty dress!

Kung Zhu!!!!

A rare shot of me (as I'm usually behind the camera):

 Once we got home from the festivities we quickly sent the kids up to bed so we could wrap "Santa's" presents and set them up under the tree.  Ahem.  I think Santa was rather generous this year!

 

Aidan and Marin with all their loot:

After the kids opened all their presents we packed everyone in the car and headed to my parents house to celebrate with them, my younger brother, and my sister and her family.  Needless to say, whenever cousins are around it's quite loud, but definitely lots of fun!

The three girls hamming it up at the breakfast bar:

Shannon and Marin scored with these super adorable, super cozy robes:

And then there was the Kinect.  My mom got a Kinect for Christmas, and boy did we put it to the test.  The kids (ah who are we kidding, the grown-ups too)  LOVED it!  Quinn and Devan:

Aidan and Liam jumping during a game:

We had a mini-New Year's celebration, and Shannon & Sharra got all dolled up for the occasion:

So all in all, Christmas was full of family, lots of fun, and lots of new and exciting toys.  As Chris said yesterday: "When did Toys R Us open up in our basement?!"

And to wrap things up I had to include this picture of my hand.  I was carrying a cup of coffee and a cup of tea from Starbucks, and the lid to the cup of tea popped off, sloshing boiling water on my hand.  This was the result (I should add that this picture was taken two days AFTER said scalding - Yikes!):

Hmmmm... wonder if I can sue?!?!  ;-)