Merry Christmas!

All ready for Christmas morning

Christmas Day

Starting to open presents

Elizabeth in her new owl hat and new coat

We're a bit behind in sending Christmas greetings, but I may just give up and wait until we actually have news. April sounds like a good time for a friendly spring hello and we should have baby news and graduation news by then (fingers crossed).

We had a lovely weekend with the M family here in town. On Christmas Eve, everyone gathered at our house for our traditional lasagne (French traditional meal representing the swaddling clothes) and reading of the nativity. I stayed up way too late after everyone left, wrapping gifts, stuffing the stockings, and making a few gift coupons for the kids. Christmas morning I was up at 5:30 am to preheat the oven and take the cinnamon rolls out of the fridge to finish rising. The kids woke up at 7 am, looked at their stockings, and by 8:20 am, we were out the door to church.

The whole family participated in the meeting. I was part of violin, flute, piano prelude music and directed the ward choir. Craig and Jessica both sang in the choir AND spoke. All the kids sang with the Primary, which Jessica directed. Mr. M, Grandma M and Grandpa M watched kids in the pews. Mr M had to chase Elizabeth in the choir loft when she escaped in the middle of one of the talks. It was a lovely meeting.

After church, we came home to open gifts and get ready for dinner at the cousins' house with some honorary M family members.  We spent the day together, eating, eating, eating, and watching the cousins open their gifts. I was so tired that I went to bed as soon as we got home and I was asleep at 8:15 pm.

Tonight, we gathered again (!) for more gift-giving, leftovers, and general mayhem. When the kids were upstairs playing, Grandma M pointed out that we were all staring at our portable technology (smart phones and ipods). Ah, family togetherness:)