The Kids Must Have Been Good

Diamond D and Lady E must have been good this past year because there were presents aplenty for X-mas. Even before Santa came there were many presents. We made a trip to Nebraska for the sake of attending Morgan E's graduation from college...congratulations Morgan! While there in the frozen wonderland of Nebraska we had an early Christmas celebration. Our family there was very generous; so much so that the Christmas booty almost didn't all fit in the Subaru. There was the temptation to leave some of the bulkier gifts there and get them on a later visit. The gift that was originally atop the "leave it for later" list was a car given to Emma by her grandparents. But after it became obvious how much she liked it it was loaded first. She does love her big car. She likes to be pushed around the house and will wail when the ride stops. Accordingly, the rides can get a bit long, and as shown here, she has to stand up on occasion for the sake of her numb bum.
Anyway, we jammed all of the gifts from Nebraska in the car and headed south heavy. We had a couple days of playing with new stuff before the McDonald clan...


...came to town. There were more presents, lots of good food and, by then end of each day, some exhausted kids, big and small. Of course the big kids like to play with new toys too. Dawn helped D with a new puzzle:
Dawn and Desmond try on alphabet helmets:


Once everyone arrived and had settled in it was time to go to church for Christmas Eve. Afterwards what was first a picturesque holiday scene...

...descended into a chaotic, paper-tearing frenzy.


Sometimes it was even difficult to tell the presents from the children.

By the time it was over Pops had his toy assembly work cut out for him.

To round out the post we thought we'd include photos of a couple more exciting items that were given to the kids. Desmond got a motocross helmet...he doesn't quite yet have the neck for it though.

And Emma got another riding toy that she seems to enjoy. She's shown here wearing a new outfit complete with new shoes that were both gifts from her aunts.


And finally here is Desmond wearing a new track outfit complete with his new motorcycle boots that are almost as cumbersome for him to wear as the helmet. This photo was taken as we were getting ready to take a car ride to go look at Christmas lights. D insisted on wearing his new boots and promptly fell asleep in the car, missing the lights entirely.

Thanks to everyone for being so generous with your gift giving, and we hope that yours was a happy holiday.