Christmas 2009

In case you read Amy's blog about Mike's treasure hunt for his Christmas gift, she mentioned one of the clues being hidden in the "kissing ball". Well, I managed to get the picture that goes with it. Actually, they had to do it a couple of times for me to get the picture I wanted. I don't think they minded though.

Here is a picture of our "letter tree".

Andrew discovers the presents under the tree.

Yum ... Zach's present tastes really good!


Christmas was celebrated on two fronts this year. We drove to Edwardsville on Christmas Eve and spent time with Laura. That night we slept at Amy's, staying long enough to see Zach open his presents. He was very excited to get Star Wars Leggos -- both a video game and real leggos. Then we went to Michael's home to deliver presents & Christmas letters. Unfortunately Sierra wasn't feeling well. She was happy though to open her Barbie things. We took Danny a scooter; hopefully he will have a place to ride it. Right before we left for home, Dustan called from his mission in California. It was good to be able to talk to him for a few minutes, before turning him over to his mom. Poor Danny has missed his big brother a lot and got very emotional talking to him.

We went home, arriving about 5:00 P.M. That gave me almost an hour to prepare dinner before Aaron's phone call began. We were only able to talk to him for 40 minutes. (Dustan got 2 hours.) Aaron sounded really good. His mission is going well. Amy, Jeanette, Karen & their families were able to come down and spend about three days with us. We exchanged our letters. Some of us were still writing them for the first couple of days. It was really nice to read them. The little ones opened their presents. Zach got a scooter too; I think he liked it. He was on it a good bit of the time they were here. Andrew got a "Little People" nativity set. It tasted good he said.