Christmas Day

I hardly took any pictures on Christmas Day, and the ones I did take were mostly dark and blurry because I was using a camera whose flash has died (great planning, I know). But it was a wonderful day. We told the kids that they could wake us up at 6:30am, so of course they all came marching into our room at 6:30 on the dot.

We had a nice time opening presents with just our little family and there was plenty of time afterwards to get ready for church, which started at 10:30am.

Church was lovely; there was a LOT of music and only one 10-minute talk -- my favorite kind of meeting! I was involved in a lot of the music: sang in the choir for several pieces, sang a solo on O Holy Night with other soloists and the choir, sang Mary Did You Know in an a cappella SSAA quartet (I love singing with those ladies!), played the piano for an arrangement of O Little Town of Bethlehem for a congregational hymn, and played a fun/hard piano part of a piano/organ duet of Hark the Herald Angels Sing, which was the opening hymn.

At 1:00 we went to my parents' house with all of my family to eat, hang out, & open more presents. Then at 4:00 we all drove over to my grandma's house (just one neighborhood over from my parents'), where my uncle & cousins & their kids were, too. Every Christmas my grandma makes crab bisque and peppermint punch; such a tasty tradition! We also had dinner there, the kids opened their presents from GiGi, and we had some good time to hang out with extended family. It was a lovely day!

The day after Christmas, Aaron didn't have to go to work and the six of us sat around and did NOTHING but play and enjoy each other's company. It was great! We all stayed in our pj's until mid-afternoon. The only "work" I did all day was cooking pancakes for breakfast. Aaron helped Noah build his new K'nex set, we all took turns on the Wii, the girls played with Zhu Zhu pets and rode their new bikes, we watched new DVDs, and later that evening Aaron & I went out to dinner and a movie. Fantastic!

I hope you all had a very merry Christmas.