Christmas Morning 2009 - Phase 3

Phase 3 of our Christmas 2009 tour takes us out to the Pezzelle House for Christmas Dinner with the Walker Family. It was, in my opinion, the perfect way to wind down a day of craziness. We drove out after opening gifts with Travis' family and eating of course. I might mention that Tara made some amazing blueberry sour cream pancakes (I am still waiting for the recipe) for us that morning...Mmm, Tasty. Since we got to host Christmas morning at our house this year it made the day seem one less stop crazy and I was able to talk Travis into making the trip as opposed to having my mom and dad come to us like usual. The drive gave the kiddos a chance to rest and us a chance to work up another appetite.
Here are a few pictures to mark the occasion. (I had my camera nice and handy in my new camera bag, thank you Bette. No more Ziploc's for me!)


Emi & Zoe Kate

Abigail & Billy D.

Max & Law

Some presents from Grandma & Grandpa Walker. Clothes and babies for the ladies and robots and swords for the little boys! Everyone loved their gifts, they were all very well thought out. Max's robot was pretty cool (dats cooool, per Squish speak) and even Grandpa got in on the spirit of the season...

A remote controlled mouse to torment his new kitties Jack and Annie with!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a Good Night!

Christmas Morning 2009 - Phase 2

Christmas Morning - Phase 2, The Deatsch Family!

We are a very blessed family. We have all these incredible people in our lives and all these amazing experiences, much of it thanks to Bill and Bette. At Christmas Grandma and Grandpa never disappoint! It could seem over the top I suppose to some, but certainly not to a room full of kids. I love that they spoil their grand kids this way...irresponsible parenting or not the kids will remember these mornings for their ENTIRE lives. Imagine how it must seem to them. WOW! Remember how exciting Christmas mornings were when you were 6?

The anticipation...

The wonderment...

The thrill!

It would seem I didn't take any pictures, but Travis had control of the video and I let him roll with it. So, now I have video clips of everything, even the fruit platter....(which I won't bore you with)!

Christmas Morning in Phases - Phase 1 SANTA!

As is more and more the case lately, Christmas came and went like a flash in the pan. It is now very nearly February 2010 and I have only just now come to terms with it. So I am finally getting around to blogging about it and preserving these now sweeter memories forever in cyberspace. I must admit it pretty much bummed me out this year. I thought I had it all under control and then WHAM, it's over. Sad. It becomes a bigger and bigger task with each additional child and you simply cannot control their excitement. They rip into everything before you even have a chance to gently remind them to at least look at who it's from and then it's over and you have no idea who got what or from whence it came.... It's exhausting, but I do love it. I just wished I actually had all those eyes in the back of my head I keep telling my kids about. Then I wouldn't feel like I missed it all!

Here is the first phase of Christmas Morning 2009: The Santa Phase

Santa was good this year. He brought each one of the kids a razor scooter and a set of Lego's. Not to mention the standard issue art supplies and books. For those of you that had the "pleasure" of seeing Abigail go completely psycho over sunglasses at the Craft's Christmas party this year...You'll be happy to hear Santa also brought her a pair of her own. She is officially a complete diva now, see exhibit A.

Exhibit A.

Peace OUT, says the lovely lady in shades. On to phase 2.

* Christmas Eve 2009 *

Merry Christmas Eve! As is tradition we spent Christmas Eve at Bill and Bette's with the extended family. We had Italian, the always exciting gift exchange and hardly any pictures this year, sorry.

The important thing to remember here is that it is not the quality of the photo (or the skill of the photographer) that will matter when I am old and wrinkly and looking back at precious memories. Plus, Squishy is still to little to realize what a bad picture that is!

The kids opening their gifts from Aunt Pam and Uncle John.... (Emi was first and got Barbies).

The rest of the clan waiting, sort of patiently.

Billy beginning to think his sweet face got forgotten. He wanted to panic because there was an "incident," but he held it together and I am proud of him for it. I guess all the presents had been passed out and he didn't get one...one of life's many little disappointments to get used to I say, but wait! After some confusion and a bit of detective work the missing packages were discovered in the car. As it turns out they just got overlooked in the unloading and for his patience he was rewarded with not one, but TWO presents. He had a birthday just recently as we all know and Aunt Pam is so thoughtful to get the kids gifts for their birthdays. So....


Worries be GONE!!! It was a very merry night.

Time to go home and wait for the big man!

The Tooth Fairy Chronicles

In yet another chapter of...The Tooth Fairy Chronicles... Miss Emily James has lost yet another tooth! Amazing, isn't it? Bet you didn't see that coming. Bet you can't guess what will happen in the next chapter of...The Tooth Fairy Chronicles. Hahaha, I kid. It is true though, Emi has lost another tooth. This one on the top and right before Santa comes. Just like the song.
On a less upbeat note Emi did have some other exciting tooth news. She had her first cavity and it was a doozy! So bad in fact that the dentist (Dr. Libby at Desert Ridge Pediatric Dentistry) had to pull it out completely and put a spacer in the hold the spot for a future tooth to hopefully fill. Expensive parental lesson learned here: FLOSS. She was an amazing trooper I am told. Dad handled this one, thanks Dad. You're the best!

My 32nd Gingerbread Birthday

This year's gingerbread house constructing was pretty entertaining. The kids are all old enough to get it now and they only consume about half of the decorations instead of all of them. Billy and Emi did an excellent job. Squishy did too, but mostly she decorated a gingerbread man, liked off all her handy work and repeated. This went on until poor Mr. Gingerbread was so soggy he lost an arm and she lost interest...

Travis fashioned a tree of giant gumdrops and notice the pretzel chimney? It was a party favor Auntie E made for Tami's baby shower. Worked like a charm, if you ask me!

The gingerbread house construction just happened to coincide with my 32nd birthday....sigh. These were my demands:

1. real Chinese food (no Panda Bear's)

2. to make a gingerbread house with my darling offspring

3. Baskin-Robbins mint chocolate chip ice cream cake

Travis (amazing husband) worked way to hard to make all that actually happen for me and I appreciate that more than the cake even. Surprisingly, it's hard to get that cake at 5pm the night of without a reservation. He loves me : )

It's hard to believe anyone would be interested in cake after the gingerbread house, but (it's so hard to not make reference to a certain Ms. McGee from the movie Anchorman) Abi up there can't wait. Poor girl, she just can't help but be...Squishy.

The finished project. Beautiful!

Sledding!

There is, every year, that one great storm. Some years it's better than others, but it always provides snow...tons of it. This particular year it happened early on in December and we had been promising the kids for awhile that we would go play in the snow first chance we got. So we did! As luck would have it, Grandma and Grandpa's driveway in Prescott provides the perfect sledding hill when covered in the white powdery stuff. If you're really lucky the plow will have been by a few times and built up the perfect berm at the end of the driveway...and that becomes the perfect jump. Just high enough to get some air and propel yourself across the street and into the snow bank on the other side. We had fun. Everyone except poor Abigail. My city girl. She was sport enough to do it once, didn't see what all the fuss was about and then chose to wait out our childish ways inside in the warm, toasty house, in front of the TV on the comfy couch.


Her attempt.

She did not see what so so great about it.

My snow bunny. Emi would have stayed out there until the was no light left in the sky.

Russell Maynard, eight years old.

It was a great way to end the year. I can't wait for the next opportunity to jump in the car and head up north. How great is it that we can sled in the driveway with a hot shower just seconds away! No more driving an hour (or two) home all cold and wet. How is it possible we never realized this til now?