Christmas Lunch

After opening gifts at Memere and Pepere's house, we headed over to Uncle Gene and Aunt Angie's house for lunch with the Roy side of the family. It was fun to see everyone again, and enjoy food and visiting. Aunt Angie gave out the best books - a look around the world at interesting things from every country.




After this party, we went over to Cousin Carol and Glen Mahar's house to visit with Memere's side of the family. For some reason we didn't take any pictures there. We had fun visiting again and the kids enjoyed watching Kung Fu Panda. They didn't eat much at either of the parties so I'm sure they will be hungry in the morning. It was a full day of family, food and fun!

Christmas Day

We started out the morning with new skirts for all the girls, that I laid out on the couch for them to find when they woke up. My mom and sister made some for her family but had enough left over fabric to make some for my family. The girls were so excited! It was really fun to have us all dressed the same and the skirts turned out perfectly! We bought a tie for Ben, non-clip on, but I didn't get a picture before Church.

When we came home from Church, the kids were able to open their presents. You can see Ben's new tie below, along with his Rubik's cube!

Dominoes for Domonique! She was very good about handing her trash to Pepere, who was sitting in the chair next to her.

Emily was very excited about her watch.

Kemiah and Xiomara both received brushes of their own!

Marissa wanted a yo-yo, so we got her one. Unfortunately, it was a cheap one so it doesn't work. We'll have to get her another one when we get home.

Kemiah received some new books for the LeapPad - that is at home so she can't use them right now.

She loves her dominoes!

Marissa also received a watch. They'll both be telling us what time it is all throughout the day.

Pepere opened a package from his sister - cookies!

The girls opened a Mother Goose gift from my mom - home made necklaces with matching bracelets. They loved them.

Memere opened a box from us, filled with apple sauce/cinnamon people with all the names of the family on them. There are now twelve new ornaments for the tree!

Each of the kids received a sled (that we won't be using here unless it snows in the next week).

They had fun gathering up all their stuff and putting them into their own sled.

They opened their stocking while sitting in their sleds. Inside they found gloves, and an assortment of chocolates!

There were several double presents this year: Rubik's Cube for Ben and Emily; brushes for Xiomara and Kemiah; watches for Marissa and Emily; coloring kits for Kemiah and Xiomara; sleds for all; four books in a series for the four older girls. We also received Mancala, Checkers, Scooby-D00 memory game, lego kits for Ben, giant puzzle and wagon for Domonique, and some other things. I think everyone will enjoy playing or reading for the next week.

I think the rest of Christmas day will have to go into another post because this one is already long enough!

Grammy Jammies

Our family tradition is to open Grammy Jammies on Christmas Eve. The kids all sit down, each get their present and they open at the same time. They were all looking forward to this moment so it was really fun.

Mass opening. Domonique was a little confused.

Jammies are out and everyone is loving it.

Domonique was still trying to figure it out while the others ran off to change.

Gathered her trash to take it to Uncle Chris.

Sort of needed help but didn't want to get close enough to the strangers in the room to get help.

They all asked for caps this year, something Ben has done for the past couple of years. My mom did a great job with the caps and everyone loves them! They are so super cute!

Group picture. They are just so wonderful and turned out great! I also love that Domonique is copying Kemiah's open mouth expression.

Sweet dreams, my little angels.

Need an army to feed the fish?

You do if the fish live in about 18,400 gallons of water because they were put into the old swimming pool in the backyard. There are a gillion goldfish in the pool so the kids really enjoy feeding them bread and watching them eat. This time the fish weren't interested but the kids still threw the bread in for them.







It was a fun Christmas Eve activity. As you can see, we will probably not have snow for Christmas. The weather is cool but not cold enough for the white fluffy stuff. I think I'll take this because the kids can still go outside to run around because it's not freezing, and they don't come back inside all wet.

Visit to Grand Memere

We got into town early Thursday morning. So we went to bed and then spent the whole day unpacking the car and organizing our space. Today, we went to see Kevin's grandmother in the nursing home. We took all the kids and it was a nice visit. She seems to be doing much better than expected so that is nice.


Four generations.


Decided to go ahead and take individual pictures with each of the kids, starting at the youngest.

A Christmas First

Kevin's family uses real trees for Christmas. Usually, they have it already in the house, ready for us to decorate. This year, they decided we could choose one from the yard. They planted these trees several years ago and we decided it was time to cut one down! We all went outside and walked around all the trees.




We finally selected one and Ben was ready to cut it down. Unfortunately, the saw wasn't very sharp and it was a little painful to be in all those needles. Kevin took over and cut down the tree!




Once it was free, he turned it upside down and shook out the leaves and debris from the inside of the tree. It took several shakes but he's a pro tree shaker so it wasn't tough for him.

Here it is in place but not decorated yet.

And here it is decorated. I kept it simple with lights and ornaments. That's how I do it on our fake tree at home and with the skinny branches of this tree, I wasn't sure it could hold much more.

I love all the colored lights. A couple strings were dead so Kevin's mom and brother picked up some more strings for me. I think it looks great and I love that we got it from the back yard!

Merry Christams!