The 'We survived Christmas' edition

First a little nostalgia because I can't resist an opportunity to bust out the chubby cheeks.



Babies First Christmas - 2010



Babies 2nd Christmas - 2011

So Mya was asleep in our Chirtmas card (this isn't it, check your mailbox to see if you are loved...just kidding I will post the winners below). And I am okay with that because that is a pretty decent representation of 2011. If you have ever tried to get 3 children to look at the same place at the same time you might understand just the tiniest spec of our frustration. Now add in there a child that is fully alert about 2 hours out of the day and never on schedule, but normally while her friends are napping. I think we got a good picture of each of them at some point during the Chiristmas season, so that makes me happy. And if I was any good at photo shop I would probably be able to do something with that. But for the forseeable future I think I will just settle for having one child look at the camera without any fingers up the nose. Smiles are a bonus. These things are to be expected, I hear, when dealing with the tiny humans.

I will say Christmas went off without a hitch. It was the longest day of gift giving that any of us have ever experienced. And we didn't even jump houses. We just dawdled, and headed to church, and some of us took some naps, and ate a few times and opened gifts in between. And in the end we realized the whole deal could have been handled for about $7.99 and the donated garage gifts from next door. Wrapping was unnecessary. They were unimpressed. Also, I hear, to be expected. Last year was the year of the box. So next year, here is the plan: Clayton gets a truck, pre-loved is fine. And Ella gets some mardi-gras beads leftover from our wilder days. Ok, we never really had wilder days. But we have beads. Mya gets another Mylar balloon. If we get really desperate we could re-inflate one of the 15 we have laying around the house. But I guess they might go and grow on us, so I may need to re-evaluate the plan.

The 'in case I got lazy before your name on the Christmas card list' posting of the winning photos (note these were taken just prior to the great fight over the little red button toy episode here, I never got any further cooperation from the troops):

Merry Christmas from the sweetest little people around (before you try to take their toy).