Christmas in Pictures

Did you know that they celebrate Christmas in Ethiopia on January 7th? See, I'm not late in getting this post up. 

It was a wonderful Christmas-- best yet in fact. Hope was beyond tickled at all of the festivities and had the most priceless reaction to the piano she got from Grammy and Grandy, complete with tears of joy. She was so surprised and so grateful, and I think we all might have cried a little bit with her. Lily caught a nasty sinus infection and was pretty miserable on Christmas Eve, but felt better enough on Christmas morning to be mostly herself. She enjoyed absolutely everything and is still playing with all of her new stuff.  

We thoroughly enjoyed our rolling cast of thousands, and we still miss all of the out of towners who were here. The Ferrantes NW, Staedlers and Pegises were all here for 5-8 days and we had the best time together. Lily and Hope looooooved having an enlarged fan club, as well as no bed time or nutrition rules. Scurvy was about to set in, as well as pure exhaustion, but we all made it back to school and work last week in one piece. The tree finally got undecorated today, and I finally dismantled my pretty table. I love Christmas. I hate to see it go. 

Happy New Year to all of you. Oh wait, I'm even late on that. Enjoy the pics anyway.

Chocolate peppermint birthday cake for Jesus. And Rhys.

My pretty table.

The cutest 7th graders in Texas played for us while we cooked on Christmas Eve. And by we I mean everyone but me. 

 We decided to do our Christmas Eve as more of a cocktail party instead of having a bajillion apps and then still sitting down to a big dinner, and it was awesome. Way more relaxed and laid back.

 We loved having Uncle Kevin here for a whole week and a half!

 Kyle got lots of props for his excellent squid frying abilities. Our calamari has been especially good since we switched to my preferred technique of tossing it in flour and spices instead of a heavy breading . 

 Rhys, meet Hope, Hope, meet Rhys. This might be their second conversation in 6 months. A few nights later he helped her with a reading assignment. Hello, summer job!

 Blake, Lily and Marlow posing with their gifts from Nana, which they were allowed to open on Christmas Eve (they always get to open one).

 Lily's especially into dinosaurs right now, and wowed us all by putting this puzzle together all by herself. That girl good.

Lily la-hoved this cheeta vest from Rara and Uncle Danny and has worn it almost every day since. It is REALLY cute. 

 Grandy was even tickled by his gifts at Danny and Tahra's, and Hope wore her jammies there (a big deal since she used to not even wear her jammies downstairs at our house).

 It seems like she's been here forever, but this was Grammy Cindy's first Christmas here!

 I love to see my brother loving on his girls!

 Our only family picture. How do we always do that?

 Now some people outside of Texas will also remember the Alamo.

 Mackenz was a big hit with the girls. Seems like just yesterday that she was a girl!

 The men chatting and watching football. Or whatever Danny wanted to watch.

 I don't know what they were talking about, but I definitely know they were not gossiping.

 Uncle Joe and Hope

 Uncle Davey even took a break from his Alamo Bowl duties (like being in charge of the Heisman trophy!) to come hang with his favorite other family.