Better Late Than Never...

Well, now that Christmas is almost a month past, I thought it was about time I posted the pictures of our many festivities. We had a wonderful time celebrating our Savior's birth with both sides of the family. How we love to spend time with our families...we are rich, indeed!

My lame attempt at a self timed family picture...I obviously forgot how tall P is--every picture I took had part of his head chopped off!!

The 4 'littles' before leaving for the Christmas Eve service...

Mercy, Odesco and L sang 2 songs up on the stage with their Children's Ministry class for the Christmas Eve Service...this is them rehearsing a few minutes before showtime...can you spot them? Later that night it struck me that next year only Odesco will be up performing since the oldest performers are in 1st grade...our kiddos are growing up(sniff, sniff!)

After the Christmas Eve service, we came home, parked the van, and walked across the street to our neighbor's house for their annual open house. We look forward to this each year as it is one of the rare times we get to 'reconnect' with our neighbors. Our neighbors graciously host our large brood and the youngest 4 especially enjoy their time with their daughters. We came home a little after 11...the kids actually slept in on Christmas morning(ie: past their normal 7am wake up routine)...imagine that!! I had fun preparing a yummy breakfast for them to wake up to.

Last year L enjoyed the addition of a "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake and requested the same for this year. I improvised by forming a cross with the breakfast cinnamon buns (the only time of the year we eat these things!)

Our completed Noel calendar on Christmas morning now packed away until next year....

Our spicy girl all revved up because she discovered a 'Slim Jim' in her stocking...and L generously gave her his as well... This was actually #1 on her Christmas list!!! I must confess, that 3 years ago when we were dreaming about celebrating Christmas with our Liberian children, I never imagined that Slim Jims would be at the forefront of our celebration. Odesco loves them too but is a little more subtle in his expressions of gratitude! Every time we shop at Aldi, Mercy longingly gazes at the box full of these things but wistfully reminds herself ( and anyone else within earshot) that we only buy them on special occasions like birthdays and Christmas:)

After a slow morning, we picked up Miss Betty Ann and headed over the bridge to my in laws' home for lunch. It was a sweet, relaxed visit...

A rare picture of Grandmom and Pop-Pop B:)

...And we were pleasantly surprised with a visit from one of Daddy's brothers and family....we even had the chance to meet our nephew's sweet girlfriend :)

Aunt Sharon (who is an expert knitter) was giving a hand to Mercy as she continued to learn this new found skill.

All 8 of us...Not the best picture but we managed to get one for the Christmas album at least.

Next stop....Mimi and Pop-Pop's for dinner. We were blessed by a visit from my brother and his 3 kiddos..I took this picture because they were all texting at the same time--oh the wonders of this techno-age!

Odesco enjoying the view from Pop-Pop's perch!

Pop-Pop, Mimi, my big brother and his kiddos :)

C was quite excited to get to Mimi and Pop-Pop's since he already knew what his gift was going to be...in fact he had picked it out and tried it on before Mimi took custody of it: the official Phillies World Series cap! P gave him the t-shirt to complete the outfit :)

The partying continues! On the Saturday after Christmas, we had our Pollyanna with my step family. The kids have such fun being together---I will say it is a bit of controlled chaos-you should have been there years ago when they were all babies and toddlers--thinking about that makes these gatherings seem tame!!

The older cousins...so calm ...

...Quite the contrast from this lively gang!!

...still one more gathering with M's side of the family a week later at M's sister's home- This is my hubby enjoying a fireside chat with his Dad.

The older cousins hanging out.

Mercy enjoying her meal with Grandmom~

Odesco and cousin Sam enjoy a game together~

The favorite part of coming to the W's house,(aside from time with cousins!) is Uncle's Paul's extensive phone collection! He has a phone(at least one, sometimes more) in every room and a switchboard in the playroom(see pic above). The kids have a blast calling each other all over the house...there is even a telephone booth(remember those things?!) in the driveway! So the adult conversations are punctuated by the ringing of phones all around us :)

Phew...well I think that covers all of our Christmas celebrations for 2008!
Thanks for checking in,
MamaB.