Our Christmas Story

First there was Christmas Eve at the Gustin's house (some friends of Scott and Annette Bowen) . . . and after a gloriously delicious ham dinner, Olivia got to be a little lambie in the nativity scene.

Then Santa Clause came to bring gifts to all the children that had been nice.

Apparently Jaron and I had been really good too, because even we got presents from Santa (thanks again Scott and Annette, we love the pajamas!).
(I really tried to get a picture of Liv next to Santa, but she was sort of hiding behind the couch while he was visiting).

Then there was Christmas morning.
Olivia slept in our bed, and Jaron and I were so excited to open presents that we almost couldn't wait until she woke up. Finally around 9:30 we decided to wake the little sleepy head. Who has ever heard of parents waking their kids up in excitement for Christmas?? Isn't it supposed to be the other way around??
"Wakey wakey little Liv. . . its Christmas!"

And then there was presents. Lots of fun presents, especially for Liv.
Thank you to all our Grandparents for such a wonderful Christmas!


Then, there was lounging, snuggling, resting, and watching Charlie Brown's Christmas. . .

While the movie was on I messed around with my Christmas present from Jaron, a new portrait lens. . .
And then to top off our Christmas holiday we mozied (sp?) on up to our favorite little cottage in North Bend to join Scott, Annette, and Jeremy for the rest of Christmas.
North Bend was so dreamy and snowy. Annette said it perfectly when she was looking out her big windows and watching the fresh, white, snow fall on the pond in her back yard. "She said it's like were on the inside of a little snow globe, but were not, this is real". I wish I had more pictures of our fun outing up there. I will have to get some more from Annette. As always Scott and Annette were so hospitable and fun to be around. We had so much fun eating yummy meals, playing games, and watching movies. We even built some snow men out on the frozen lake, which I didn't take a picture of, but we created two snow men swimming away from a shark. It was pretty cool. Jaron brought up some cross country skis and even skied around a bit.
Mostly we just relaxed and hung out together as a family which was so nice.


Overall it was such a great Christmas. As much as we missed our family and loved ones, our first Christmas alone was actually one that I will never forget, and may even be my most favorite Christmas yet.

Merry Christmas friends! And a Happy New Year!