Christmas Day

Some of my favorite shots of the day:

Laney asked for a jewelry box. No problem!

Did you know that it is nigh unto impossible to purchase a jewelry box these days. I visited and called dozens of JCPennies, Kohls, Targets, Walmarts, Dillards, Barnes and Nobles.....and NOTHING!

Don't we store our jewelry anymore?

Then I turned to the internet. 

Nothing. Well, nothing south of a hundred dollars. Unless you want it to be yellow or pink and have a ballerina or horse pop up on a spring and play you a song...

So I headed over to Maj-R-Thrift and the heavens pointed out the most adorable red box.

And what was monogrammed on the side?

The LETTER L!!!

Angels sang. 

I picked up some cute fox stickers and little blue flowers and snazzed it up for her, And I was rewarded with this smile:

Mark made sure the boys each received a Cubs hat and an Ohio State hat. You gotta raise them up right.

Ethan's first grown up wallet. No velcro here!

Somebody is very grateful.

Modeling the newest deadlifting socks. Hopefully these will keep his shins from getting scraped up.

And this year he gets a YARD of SNICKERS!

The girls receiving a 3 month membership to AnimalJam. One of their favorite gifts!

Laney's new bike!

And last of all, we hid Megan's new electric piano down in the basement "office" next to Mark's guitars. After all the gifts were unwrapped, Mark sent her do there to go get a guitar for him and she came back up with tears of joy running down her face.

She was so happy and so surprised. It was one of the funnest memories I have of giving a gift.

She's been down there playing ever since.

For Christmas dinner we invited the Flynns over for ham and turkey and rolls and potatoes and pie and every yummy thing we could collectively think of!

We attempted to play the Pie Face game but had some trouble with the weight of the whip cream.

It was funny and silly. A complete sticky mess...

And perfect for the little kids.

Not to mention, delicious.

However, when I play, I will be doing it with real, whipped cream.

Because I can.

I'm trying to remember why I thought face pains were a good gift.

The next week was spent in the basement with my newest Christmas puzzles and the entire final season of Downton Abby.

Heaven!

I made sure to remind the kids how satisfying it is to stroke the top of a finished puzzle.

Laney agreed.

A wonderful Christmas!