So... without further delays, here is Christmas 2007 in Pictures. We started out with a solid three and a half days in Troy with the Barton side- a wonderful change from our usual 24-36 hour whirlwind Christmas! :)
Christmas goodies are pretty messy! This picture was actually taken at our Sunday School Christmas party, but I thought it was too cute not to make the blog. :)
Friday night of Christmas weekend, Brad and I took advantage of the free, quality childcare and went out for our annual Christmas Date- a tradition these now-eight Christmases we've been together! We had a lovely dinner at PF Chang's and then went to an actual movie in the theater! I'm not sure why, but even though it costs more than twice what it would cost to actually BUY the DVD, I still love the experience of going- and since we make it to the movies about four times a year, I think it's still worth it to be able to sit in the dark movie theater, munching popcorn and holding hands. :) Maybe not very creative, but still one of my favorite date nights. :)
One of the best things about having children is getting to pass down some of what made your own childhood so special. Mom and Dad saved the tree decorating for us (hee hee :)) so I got to introduce Carolyn to some of my favorite Christmas ornaments- these Precious Moments animals were the privileged ornaments on my family's tree. There were exactly three of them and exactly three of us, and I remember each of us getting to hang just one on the tree. I think there was one of the ornaments that was more highly prized than the others, but my sisters will have to help me remember- I've forgotten which one! :)
Here, Carolyn plays with "The Magi," so named because that was what I (or one of my sisters) called the nativity scene when we were first learning to talk. The Magi could only come out each year after Thanksgiving, and their arrival was one of the things I remember looking forward to each year as a child. Carolyn's favorite part of the set was the donkey ("gockey"), though she could also identify the Baby Jesus- hey, it's a start! :)
Maybe next year we can share this family tradition with Carolyn- the Making of the Candy Cane Cookies- a complex process of ball rolling, hot-dog-forming, cane twisting, and, of course, plenty of cookie dough eating- along with the occasional cookie dough food fight (a addition of more recent years :))
As you may have learned by reading my eternal post from this morning, Carolyn was not feeling well over Christmas, and though there were many frustrating tearful moments, there were also many other moments like this. You can imagine my mom just ATE this up! :)
Saturday night, we visited with our friends Charlie and Rachel. They were some of our first friends in Phoenix and we enjoyed many happy Euchre games since we were both from Michigan! They've since moved to Minneapolis and we of course live here in Michigan, but their family lives near mine and we try to see them whenever they're close by. :)
Their daughter Leah is just a few days older than Carolyn. This is the happiest picture I have of the two of them that night since Carolyn spent most of the evening in tears... but bananas proved to be a great solution and here they both watch each other stuffing her mouth! :)
Monday was full of preparations for the Big Christmas Eve Celebration! Tradition mandates that each stocking contain something Edible... these cookies were hiding upstairs in one of the bedrooms, awaiting placement in Bryan's stocking... when Carolyn disappeared for a moment, a quick search found her here! She didn't even dig in right away- she waited for me to come and then asked if she could "pss" have a cookie! What a sweet girl! Of course she got one, even though it was right before dinner. It's Christmas after all. :)
Here, Carolyn inspects the gifts. She was most interested in anything that was not for her. :)
It was fun to have my Granddad (dubbed "Da-Dad" by Carolyn) up from North Carolina to celebrate with us. I love how children are so free with their affection and love so uncomplicatedly. Granddad looks and sounds a little different from most of the people we're around, but right from the very beginning, Carolyn seemed to have a very real and genuine affection for him- perhaps helped along by the fact that he allowed her to play with his keys every time she asked. :) It warmed my heart to see her give love so freely and I'm sure it warmed his, too.
One of my favorite things about Christmas this year was the sing-along we had all together. Since Carolyn wasn't feeling well, we couldn't take her to the church nursery, so we improvised our own Christmas Eve service with lots of carols, sung in harmony around the piano. :) Even the boys jumped in!
This picture pretty much sums up the way Carolyn felt about the whole present-opening experience. Can you see the "NO" on her face?! I'm sure she won't be saying NO to presents next year! :) And hopefully she won't be sick, either! :)
Christmas goodies are pretty messy! This picture was actually taken at our Sunday School Christmas party, but I thought it was too cute not to make the blog. :)
Friday night of Christmas weekend, Brad and I took advantage of the free, quality childcare and went out for our annual Christmas Date- a tradition these now-eight Christmases we've been together! We had a lovely dinner at PF Chang's and then went to an actual movie in the theater! I'm not sure why, but even though it costs more than twice what it would cost to actually BUY the DVD, I still love the experience of going- and since we make it to the movies about four times a year, I think it's still worth it to be able to sit in the dark movie theater, munching popcorn and holding hands. :) Maybe not very creative, but still one of my favorite date nights. :)
One of the best things about having children is getting to pass down some of what made your own childhood so special. Mom and Dad saved the tree decorating for us (hee hee :)) so I got to introduce Carolyn to some of my favorite Christmas ornaments- these Precious Moments animals were the privileged ornaments on my family's tree. There were exactly three of them and exactly three of us, and I remember each of us getting to hang just one on the tree. I think there was one of the ornaments that was more highly prized than the others, but my sisters will have to help me remember- I've forgotten which one! :)
Here, Carolyn plays with "The Magi," so named because that was what I (or one of my sisters) called the nativity scene when we were first learning to talk. The Magi could only come out each year after Thanksgiving, and their arrival was one of the things I remember looking forward to each year as a child. Carolyn's favorite part of the set was the donkey ("gockey"), though she could also identify the Baby Jesus- hey, it's a start! :)
Maybe next year we can share this family tradition with Carolyn- the Making of the Candy Cane Cookies- a complex process of ball rolling, hot-dog-forming, cane twisting, and, of course, plenty of cookie dough eating- along with the occasional cookie dough food fight (a addition of more recent years :))
As you may have learned by reading my eternal post from this morning, Carolyn was not feeling well over Christmas, and though there were many frustrating tearful moments, there were also many other moments like this. You can imagine my mom just ATE this up! :)
Saturday night, we visited with our friends Charlie and Rachel. They were some of our first friends in Phoenix and we enjoyed many happy Euchre games since we were both from Michigan! They've since moved to Minneapolis and we of course live here in Michigan, but their family lives near mine and we try to see them whenever they're close by. :)
Their daughter Leah is just a few days older than Carolyn. This is the happiest picture I have of the two of them that night since Carolyn spent most of the evening in tears... but bananas proved to be a great solution and here they both watch each other stuffing her mouth! :)
Monday was full of preparations for the Big Christmas Eve Celebration! Tradition mandates that each stocking contain something Edible... these cookies were hiding upstairs in one of the bedrooms, awaiting placement in Bryan's stocking... when Carolyn disappeared for a moment, a quick search found her here! She didn't even dig in right away- she waited for me to come and then asked if she could "pss" have a cookie! What a sweet girl! Of course she got one, even though it was right before dinner. It's Christmas after all. :)
Here, Carolyn inspects the gifts. She was most interested in anything that was not for her. :)
It was fun to have my Granddad (dubbed "Da-Dad" by Carolyn) up from North Carolina to celebrate with us. I love how children are so free with their affection and love so uncomplicatedly. Granddad looks and sounds a little different from most of the people we're around, but right from the very beginning, Carolyn seemed to have a very real and genuine affection for him- perhaps helped along by the fact that he allowed her to play with his keys every time she asked. :) It warmed my heart to see her give love so freely and I'm sure it warmed his, too.
One of my favorite things about Christmas this year was the sing-along we had all together. Since Carolyn wasn't feeling well, we couldn't take her to the church nursery, so we improvised our own Christmas Eve service with lots of carols, sung in harmony around the piano. :) Even the boys jumped in!
This picture pretty much sums up the way Carolyn felt about the whole present-opening experience. Can you see the "NO" on her face?! I'm sure she won't be saying NO to presents next year! :) And hopefully she won't be sick, either! :)
1 comment:
EB! I love your new hair do! It's so cute!
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