Another Holiday Season in the Books

Yep, we made it through the holidays one more time. And though we seem to get busier and busier each year, it seems to get funner and funner each year too.

Check out what we got to do this year.

Jennifer made Pops shop for a proper present this year. In years past she has found something that she couldn't live without, bought it and declared, "this is my Christmas present." Unfortunately for her Pops holds her to it and doesn't get her anything else. Well, this year Jen wanted a more traditional Christmas where she gets to have something to open under the tree. So Pops, D and E went shopping. While we were shopping Desmond got to ride this bungee bouncing ride.

Desmond's basketball classes (Little Dribblers) wrapped up in December. He had fun learning the fundamentals and decided that he likes basketball.

Now he has started proper basketball, complete with teams, practices and games. He's in a league with 5 to 6 year olds, so he's definitely one of the youngest kids. For a little kid basketball is a pretty complicated game, but he's catching on well.

A couple weeks before Christmas Airbus had an employee "Breakfast with Santa". It was at a very nice venue, and was a perfect event for the kids.

We had a very nice breakfast, and then there was cookie decorating and crafts to do.

Then, of course, we got to visit with Santa, and he gave the kids presents. It was really a nice event, and we had a great time.

Later that same day we went to the new Intrust Bank Arena to see Barney.

Emma is the Barney fan of the family, so she had a great time. She was amazed to see Barney and the other characters, and loved singing along to familiar songs. The theme of the show was not a Christmas one, but it didn't matter, we loved every minute...except for the confetti cannons that were very startling when they went off.

There was a Christmas program at church. Desmond and Emma are both in Sunday School, so they were supposed to participate, and had been practicing for weeks. On the evening of the show D refused to get into his costume and join in. His mind would not be changed, and only Emma was in the program.

She was an angel.

On Christmas Eve we had a very nice dinner before going to church.

We had some guests, so this was the first year of the kid's table. D and E did not make the best of their new-found independence. There was a lot of goofing off, and not much eating.

After church we came home and took a few photos.

And then it was time to open some presents. The kids got (too?) many.

There was the typical new pajamas and new clothes from Mom and Pops, along with some new DVD's and a toy or two. Other family members got them some great stuff too. Maybe one of the most entertaining was the microphone Emma got from Nana.

It has some canned songs that you can play and sing along to. Emma loved dancing to these songs. She was a little timid when it came to singing through the mic, but she has since warmed up to it a bit.

We also made the trip north to Nebraska to celebrate Christmas with our family there. There were more presents to open there.

Emma got a fabulous make-up desk (complete with cell phone). It may actually be called a vanity or something. Anyway she likes it. The other day Aunt Dawn was at our house with her dog Scout. During this visit both Scout and Kevin got imaginary hair washes, followed by a very relaxing blow dry.

Desmond got a shaving kit and has really taken to pampering himself. A shave, with some aftershave, some deodorant and some gel for his hair help D to look and feel his best.

Santa definitely made it to our house. The kids got lots of good stuff.

It was the year of the scooter. I think a couple of months ago D saw a commercial for scooters on television. I seem to remember in this commercial that the people were doing tricks, and jumping with their scooters. D evidently thought that was pretty cool, or maybe he thought the scooters could fly or something...anyway he decided early on that he wanted a scooter from Santa. With all of this scooter talk Emma also decided that was what she wanted from Santa too. So that's what they got. Too bad it's too cold to go outside and enjoy them...'till spring, I guess.

During our Christmas break from work we were in Kansas City. While there we went to the Union Square children's museum. They had a super cool dinosaur exhibit, "Walking with the Dinosaurs". The exhibits were life-sized and would move and make noise...very cool.

Afterward the kids (Desmond, Emma and Jennifer) made build-a-dinos before we left the museum. I think Jennifer had the most fun.

And finally we celebrated the New Year with a very fun party at our house. The party was complete with games (Candyland), party favors, noise makers and a New Years Eve toast.

Everyone was very sad to see the Christmas tree come down.