A Christmas to Remember, Parts II & III

Christmas at Grandma Mary and Grandpa Tim's house has two parts.  Part I:  Kid Christmas and Part II:  Adult Christmas.  When there are nine children, four and under, it seems everyone enjoys it more this way.

Part I of the evening started with dinner:  frozen pizza, no veggies, and something sweet for dessert.  Our kids' dream dinner, except for Joey, of course, he only dreams of milk.

Best part of this picture:  Joey.

Not pictured:  Lucy (she's just two months older than Joey and either eating or sleeping somewhere else in the house)

After dinner we all headed downstairs for the reading of the Christmas Story.

Grandpa's a good reader.

The kids were mostly captivated, which is pretty good for this crew.

They also could answer zero questions about the story when he finished reading.  Right in line with what you might expect from a bunch of excited small fries.  Who can concentrate with all of those presents in need of opening looming under the nearby Christmas tree.

They might not have remembered anything he said, but at least they weren't making faces during the scripture reading.

Once Grandpa Tim finished up the story, we couldn't hold them back any longer.  Present opening commenced.

Then there were lots of hugs

and thank yous

and cuddling.

 

Joey and Great Grandma Dort

Then we talked to Auntie Lisa and Uncle Andy via Skype (more on them in a future post), got the kids ready for bed, let them eat a Christmas treat, and got the adult Christmas dinner on the table.

There aren't many pictures of Adult Christmas, but it was very much like one would think.  Yummy food followed by presents, Joe and Laura's customary Christmas picture, 

((with an added flair from Crazy Man Tim)

They always dress up, Joe always wears something unique on his head (this year it was a pink blanket and scarf), and they always stand in this doorway for the picture.)

and the yule log ceremony.  It was a unique ceremony this year (although, I think the pictures are on Auntie Beth's camera), as we had TWO yule logs.  Last year I wrote about how Tim misplaced the yule log. This year he redeemed himself by finding last year's yule log and at the same time not losing this year's yule log. Well done, Gramps.  He ceremoniously threw them on the fire and it was twice as good a yule log ceremony as I've ever scene.  Joe and I ended the evening with a quiet, midnight walk in the beautiful, Charlie Brown snowfall outside.