Christmas in Midland

Due to the close proximity of Viola's arrival, we celebrated Christmas with both sides of the family at our house this year. The Motz family arrived Monday to spend that night and the next. On Monday night we toured the Grasslands neighborhood to enjoy all the lights. Afterwards we watched A Christmas Story. "Not a finger!" quickly took its place among all our other traditional family sayings. On Tuesday evening we opened our gifts. Among many other things, the kids opened Sleeping Beauty and Prince Phillip dolls.
After the Motz departure on Wednesday morning, the Griffin family arrived that evening to spend two nights with us. On Christmas Eve, Jan and I spent most of the day taking turns in the kitchen as we prepared the holiday meal. Thanks to her help it went very smoothly and the food turned out great. I even made monkey bread for the first time. That night the kids opened a couple of gifts including pajamas and a laughing puppy dog from Uncle Jimmy and Aunt Aggie. You can see from the picture below that they aren't quite sure what to make of it. After the kids went to bed, we watched It's a Wonderful Life.
On Christmas morning we slept in until about 8:00. The kids looked at their stockings as soon as they got up, and I made pancakes. After breakfast, the real extravaganza began. The kids got more stuff than the law allows! And we got some great stuff as well. Thank you to both families for a special time and for all the thoughtful gifts.