Christmas Prequal 2

Due to various family schedules, we celebrated Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa a couple days before Christmas. Once again, my photojournalism is spotty at best; I do not have pictures of dinner or all the gift opening or all the presents or all the fun times, but here is a little smattering for you.

New hats from Uncle Tommy and Aunt Jena! The red you see on Michael's face is a heart that Catherine made for him with her new face paints.

Gussie was a lot happier about his hat than this picture shows. He has worn it every day this week.

When Olivia saw me taking pictures of the boys in their hats, she jumped in front of the camera and insisted on her own picture in her new hat.

Chris's reaction when he opened this was so enthusiastic that I swung around to see what all the fuss was about.

Gussie wore his new head lamp most of the evening, and he and Grandpa read a lot of books.

Michael's big present from Grandma and Grandpa was a new bike!

Grandpa took off the training wheels for him before we went home, and we have had a few lucky warm days this week so Michael got some riding in already. It's a bit bigger than his old bike so he's a little wobbly with the start and stop, but he really likes it. So far he has asked to bring it back inside when he's done riding "so it will stay shiny."

Catherine and Mary each got a set of Piggy Paints and have spent a little too much time painting and repainting their nails this week (after some lessons from Aunt Jena).

More reading. More head lamp.

Teresia was once again happy to be cuddled once we arrived and got settled in.

I didn't get a lot of pictures of opening presents, but here are some pictures of the kids playing with their presents the next day.

The kinetic sand has been a big hit with all the kids.

I don't know if you can see, but Catherine was on chapter 29 of a new book that she received the night before. She finished it before the end of the day.

And more showing off of painted fingernails, but I happen to think eyes are more interesting so the nails are blurry. Sorry, Mary.

Unfortunately Daddy and Uncle Tommy are not wearing the new biking sleeves and bibs they got for Christmas in this team photo, but Thomas is wearing his new cap. If this was a social media site, and if I used hashtags, this one would be #skinnystrong. That would be a good team jersey; it should just say #skinnystrong across the front.

Many thanks all around for the dinner, the gifts, and the company!