Christmas!

Having Christmas on a Sunday is both lovely (a good chance to worship and celebrate), and complicated (everything has to be rushed so we can get ready for church on time). Thankfully the Bloods' ward started at 10 am, so we had an extra hour for things like investigating stockings:

We enjoyed a lovely music-filled meeting, then headed home for the opening of gifts.

Elise was very excited for her first Christmas: 

Gift sorting for way too many people:

Catherine, buried up to her chin in gifts. Can you say "spoiled"?

Aaron LOVED the chaos of Christmas with thirty-plus people:

"No want to!"

Seth was VERY excited to open gifts:

...until I reminded him that he's the second-oldest grandchild and thus had a LONG wait ahead:

Elise was third in line (after Hazel & Tauriel).

She loved her bath toys from Catherine:

Aaron recovered from his trauma in time to open his gifts:

Catherine's Elsa doll from Seth:

And her expanding bath sponge toys from Adleigh (her favorite gift):

Seth loved his bow & arrow from Catherine & Elise.

I think Jason loved it more, though:

Nerf gun from Russell (also a hit with Jason):

Not pictured: Jon getting some nice new work shirts from Stephen (the Koford version) & the kids, me getting some adorable winter boots from Marah. Jon & I already exchanged gifts. He bought me a laptop & smartphone, I bought him a carpet cleaner. 

That afternoon we had a chance to Skype with Jacob:

We also enjoyed some delicious Christmas treats:

Yes, that's a knife in her hand.

Funny story: this tray of cookies had been sitting on the table. Elise was also sitting on the table (of course). She saw the tray but didn't seem very interested until she watched me cut off a piece. It was like a light went on in her brain. "That is FOOD?!?!" She speed-crawled across the table and over the tray of cookies to get one. You can actually see her handprint near the edge of the picture. This girl doesn't mess around with food. 

And, finally, Eowyn:

This picture makes me happy because

1) She's gorgeous, and

2) She was interacting with me voluntarily, and actually seemed to enjoy it.

Another wonderful Christmas in the books!