Christmas dinner

We went over to my Dad's house for Christmas dinner and pigged out on an amazing turkey with all the trimmings- including the brussel sprouts. Christmas dinner would not be the same without choking down a few brussel sprouts. Catherine cooked them to perfection and they were palatable (too many bad childhood memories of sprouts I'm afraid...). Naomi was too tired to eat- she looks pretty grumpy doesn't she? She fell asleep very soon after dinner. The rest of us spent the evening playing 'Guitar Hero' with Robert and Samantha!

Christmas Morning

Wow! We were all so spoiled! The gifts just kept coming and coming. We stared opening our gifts around 10:00 and did not finish until almost noon! The girls had a great time opening all their gifts and loved each and every one of them. James and I bought each other some mementos from Hawaii (aren't we cute...) and Oma and my Mom were also spoiled. Victoria's favorite gifts were her new Webkinz and the chemistry set she got from Santa, Naomi's was a digital camera (the rough and tumble kind made for kids- although it takes terrible pictures. I guess you cannot have both...) and Olivia was given some new books, which she loves and we have been reading and rereading every day since! James and I took each other to Hawaii and so we put on our Hawaiian garb and reminisced about our trip- that was our big Christmas gift this year!

Cookies and Milk for Santa

Here are Naomi and Victoria leaving cookies and milk for Santa, and some carrots for the reindeer. Olivia was already in bed, but these two were just to excited to sleep. Eventually we told them that Santa does not come unless you are asleep. They were mortified and went to sleep right away! I think I will remind them of that next year too....

Victoria lost her second tooth!

Just as our Nativity play was over Victoria disappeared and then reappeared holding her tooth! It had been wobbly for a while and she decided to get it out all by herself. She was visited by both Santa and the tooth fairy on Christmas Eve. Lucky girl!

Our Nativity Play

This year James' sister was living just around the corner so we all got together and reenacted the nativity. It was great! With 7 kids between the two families we had enough people to act out all the parts- it did not hurt that I am actually pregnant and was able to play Mary...

It was wonderful to remind us all of what Christmas is really about.

Christmas Eve Dinner

It is a German tradition to eat fish on Christmas Eve, and so we have decided to carry on that tradition. Each year we seem to find an absolutely wonderful Salmon (usually Oma finds an organic, fresh Salmon). They are amazing! She also makes a wonderful sauce from mint and cilantro and we PIG OUT! We also had asparagus and rice with sparking juices. It was a meal fit for a king! The girls also enjoyed it and we had a lovely Christmas Eve dinner.

Trimming and Re-Trimming the tree.

The girls spent most of December rearranging the ornaments on our tree. Whenever I was not too sure where they were I knew I should look in the living room first. Here they are still at it on Christmas Eve! It was adoreable!

Oma-Oma came for Christmas

For those of you who know German, you know that the proper way to say 'great-grandmother' is Ur-Oma. However, in our home it has become Oma-Oma, and she came to celebrate Christmas with us this year. It was wonderful to have her and we were all very grateful that she came!!! Here are all the 'woman' of the family on Christmas Eve. Poor James, the only male, was stuck taking the picture.

Christmas Angels

Here are our beautiful girls in their Christmas dresses on Christmas Eve. They were so excited! I was grateful that they stood still long enough to take some pictures!

Each one (except Olivia) picked the trim for their dresses. Victoria had to have feux fur and my shy little Naomi wanted gold sequins!! Olivia got little white 'snow ball' pompoms.I have realized that I started a tradition (making the girls Christmas dresses) that is going to be harder and harder to continue... but they turned out nicely this year, so knowing me I will try to repeat the tradition again next year.