Moreland Family Christmas

Christmas was a marathon event for our family this year, and the kids loved it. We celebrated Moreland family Christmas on the second weekend of January. Gran, Grandad, Matt, Sara, Hollyn, Noah and Hannah all arrived on Friday evening. We had breakfast together on Saturday morning, and then the gift opening began. I'm really not sure who had more fun: the kids or Gran.

This has to be my favorite picture from the weekend. Noah IS a pirate. And a cute one at that. ARGH, maties!

Andy takes his role as helper to the little boys very seriously, as I'm usually behind the camera.

I tried to photograph Hannah all weekend, and this is the only decent picture I got. That girl moves FAST. Love those pigtails.

Gran gave Syd a sewing machine, and immediately began lessons. Sydney produced a skirt and headband for her AG doll by the end of the morning.

Hollyn and Sydney both got aprons and Paula Deen cookbooks. Such sweeties. And that cookbook has already come in handy a number of times.

Blake and Noah each got these obnoxious Hulk hands, courtesy of Aunt Carla and Uncle Den. They make noise when you make contact. One thing it says, in a Hulk-sounding voice, is "You won't like me when I'm angry." This has become a common saying in our home. I'm really not sure I should have told you that...

So there was a lot of this that day:

The little kids all liked each other's toys. Max played with the rocket ship that Brady got. He still plays with it every day. It keeps him busy at least long enough to unload the dishwasher.

Brady loved the MP3 player that Hannah got.

Grandad loves to sit in a big chair, draped in babies and read a book.

The biggest surprise was the "big" gift from Gran and Grandad. Both families received Wiis. Everyone was thrilled. And Blake ran in circles like an overexcited puppy for about an hour. It has provided hours of family fun already. Here's Matt and Sara, opening said Wii, looking like they stepped out of a magazine. (As a side note, if you ever need fashion advice, I'm sure Sara could serve as Stacy from What Not to Wear, in a pinch. She has impeccable taste, and I've never seen her look vaguely maw-maw. Although, I don't think she'd give you an Amex card loaded with $5,000.)

The biggest change for us this year was the absence of the holiday food marathon. We opted, instead, for lunch out at Longhorn (a burger joint loud enough to drown out the noise of our crew), and had a very simple dinner at the house. We were honored to have some of Matt and Sara's friends come over to reconnect with them on Saturday evening (in honor of Matt's birthday). The house was hopping with kids, and we managed a fun evening with no injuries.:)

Switching gears, I've been meaning to tell you about the sweetest gift Sydney made for Brady. He's been asking for a field journal for EVER, and I've tried different strategies to pacify him. Finally, Sydney (being the brilliant, creative child that she is) printed out some pics of animals, stapled them all together and BAM, field journal. Brady was thrilled.

Of course, it is now missing...