The bad news: I don't know what the heck I am doing and my pictures are turning out terrible. This is where I shamelessly beg my sister to come help me learn how to use my camera. PLEASE??? For my birthday. Oh, darn it, I just remembered you already gave me my birthday ..............which I LOVE by the way =)
OK. Back on task.
We had the opportunity to go down the famous Michigan Ave this year to check out all of the Christmas lights and window displays. They really do have some great displays. I really love downtown Chicago. Especially when I check it out from the comfort of our warm van. Wish I had some great pics to share with you but these will have to do. 
We actually had our Christmas tree up this year! Yay! We didn't have it up last year because the movers packed up our house on December 10th and 11th and we didn't move into our house here until December 17th. Then we quickly unpacked the house and headed down to North Carolina to party with the Tremaynes. We missed having a Christmas tree! We had only had the ornaments for one year so I forgot what they looked like. It was a nice surprise when we unpacked the ornaments. I love the sparkly ornaments like this one:
They sure do look nice on the tree. Unfortunately, more often than not they ended up in a bunch like this:
Jackson and Macy enjoyed "decorating" the tree all season.
Christmas Eve was a different experience for us this year. This is the first year that we weren't with any extended family. Although we missed the famous Green family party (and some dang good white elephants) it was kind of nice to have a laid back Christmas Eve.
The kiddos baked cookies for Santa, we ate pozole, and watched my favorite version of A Christmas Carol (Scrooge with Albert Finney). I think our favorite part of the evening was "The Quiz". The kids have been talking about, and begging for a sneak peek of "The Quiz" for 2 weeks. Conal and I think up questions about them when they were babies or really little. The kids think it is the biggest crack up ever.
The kids got to open a couple of presents. One being the traditional Christmas Eve pajamas. We even got Jackson to sit still for the picture this year. 
Can't say the same for Macy.
Still can't believe I found matching pj's for 5 kids. Probably won't happen again!
CHRISTMAS MORNING:
Our kids let us sleep in until 7:30 (yes, 7:30 is sleeping in for us. Conal and I both get up before 6 am ). We were pleasantly surprised.
Our kids really are at a fun age for Christmas. Jackson really got into present opening this year.
Garrison was very animated as well.
My favorite reaction though is when Hailey found what Santa left her in the basement. She screamed when she saw her new playhouse. 
How many kids can fit in one playhouse anyway???
Macy wasn't sure what to think of all of the excitement over the playhouse.
We missed being with family this year. However, it sure was nice not to have to be anywhere on Christmas or Christmas Eve. This Christmas the the laziest most laid back Christmas I've ever had. We didn't even get out of our pajamas. We really need more days like that!
Happy New Year!
6 comments:
Girl I don't know what you're talking about! I love all the pics! Look at the totally gawgeous bokeh on that ornament! You got it goin' on.
Still miss you, but very very glad your Christmas was fun. And I totally love that idea of your kids' quiz! I'll have to try that sometime.
You guys have such cute kids, and Christmas is so much fun with kids the ages yours are. Thanks for sharing the photos. (Btw . . . they were very good photos)
Those were great photos. True photography is quite a sience. I wish I had the focus to study it. No pun intended. Your kids are darling, your Christmas looked so fun. I did the matching pjs for my kids and loved it so I continued that with my grandkids so now I am searching for 12 matching pjs. How can I keep that up!!!!!
When Nathan saw your pics he said they looked like they came from a magazine.=) Great job!
Glad you had a great Christmas!
I think you're going to have tons of fun with your new camera. We're looking forward to lots of great pictures. You've made a great start. I love Mandi's photos too - but a lot of her artistry comes through Photoshop. That's a totally different skill set, and she's very good at it. So, comparisons with Mandi are like stepping out of bounds: no fair.
I'm glad you posted a comment to Marlene's blog so that I could come and see your family. Christmas looks like it was fun! It was fun to see your cute kids. Its amazing how quickly time flies.
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