Christmas time was here!

After spending the first day of 2011 forcing 4 boxes worth of decorations back into the four boxes they came out of, I realized I had yet to publish the Christmas blog!

The festivities this year began with the annual horror known as "getting a good Christmas card shot". My two year old niece tried to help out:

Exhibit A: Failure to capture four children looking in same direction:

Exhibit B: Those who take the "casual pose by the tree" request a little too literally:

Exhibit C: The unfortunate Christmas sweater fit:

Before I knew it, the time for Christmas card planning was over and it was almost Christmas Eve. I took some time out one evening to make some "easy cutout" cookies:

(each year I say..never again...and each year I try again - SICK!)

Time for "Nestor the Long Eared Donkey" - the Rankin Bass 1970's cartoon I remember and no one else apparently does:

and time to volunteer to help my sister get her youngest kids to take a photo with Santa:

(the one on the left is simply too terrified to cry!)

Then Christmas Eve arrived, and here are a few examples of the kids posing with ornaments and stockings at Grandma's house:

Then, for what reason I'll never know...these three decided to suck lemons for awhile:

Christmas Day dawned stormy and cold. I trudged the three miles through this horrific storm (i.e. rain and mild wind) to the "main house" for the big event:
The niece and nephews were already assembled, be-jammied and hyper aware of the load of gifts taking up 80% of the space in the living room:

The unwrapping, filming and photographing began!

Some people, I WON'T SAY WHO, rapidly unwrapped and ran off with the goods:
While others posed momentarily with their gifts:

and some got their hearts desire..this one wanted a Pogo stick and got one!alas, the cornucopia of gifts couldn't last forever:
While the adults waded through the piles of boxes and papers, untangled toys tied to their packages with super strong twisties from hell (what is with that, anyway??) and scarfed down sugar laden donuts, the kids inspected their "gift kills":

While others amused themselves in other ways:

Then the kid dreaded "adult gift opening" portion of the day came around - the kids tend to show little patience with this activity:

uh, yeah...I had nothing to do with the following gift!
We did manage to find creative ways to keep the kids quiet while we opened presents:

While assorted family members traipsed home to unload their gift hauls, the Christmas dinner table was set up:
(uncomfortably seats about 20)

The afternoon brought kids with fresh (new!) clothes:
and fresh new kids to open their gifts!
So the madness ensued once again...with paper and gifts and the occasional baby flying all over the place:

And then another fresh kid arrived to tackle her gift offerings:

and finally, the big gift of the year was unveiled...yes, we all brought mom (grandma) into the 21st century and got her a laptop:
This kid's betting she can't find the "on" button:
Finally, and I do mean finally... it was time for some dessert - my awesome butterscotch pies shall only merit a passing reference, as I mistakenly purchased "cook and serve" pudding instead of instant. This MINOR error resulted in what I shall politely refer to as "loose pie filling".
Lastly, here is a glimpse of what I dealt with while attempting to get some portraits of the kids this year...to no avail: