Mom and dad flew in for the holidays, which was the best present of all. They flew into Frankfurt and spent their first few days hitting some Christmas markets and meeting Madison.
On Christmas Eve The McAvoys all drove here. We enjoyed having everyone here for a real family Christmas.
We had the added surprise of Shelly's friend, Stephanie, joining us on Christmas morning. As I always say...the more the merrier...and it truly was.
The kids with their now traditional Christmas Surprise Bags from GrammaRia. There are usually just little trinkets in the bags, it's just the fun and anticipation of them, as Gramma sends them very early in December.
As was the tradition when I was growing up, the kids can open one gift on Christmas Eve. We encourage them to open their gifts to each other, but sometimes the draw of an ornately wrapped package is too great!
The tree...and this is before Santa.
Another tradition....Reading the Bible story and A Christmas Carol. I read to Madison early in the night...rather speed read to her, as she was turning into a pumpkin pretty fast.
From the kids (the grown up kids, anyway). Ed, Shelly, Chris and I went in on this for mom and dad. We took a family photo later in the day that we'll put in the center. It meant a lot to have mom and dad share time in Europe with all of us.
Let's play a game...it's called Where's Madison...see if you can find her in the photo on top.....Can you tell it was her first Christmas??!!
Relaxing a bit before dinner...and then time for the family photo. It is very hard to get a photo of everyone looking great in one shot.
Dinner before and during. I'm wiped out from a full day of cooking. It was worth it, though, as next year we'll be all alone...Ed and Shelly are moving back to the US. We'd love it of other family or friends would start making plans to visit in 2007!!
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