We already celebrated with Nana and Papa over the weekend…

… and we caught an early service at church…

… so tonight was spent watching TV – mostly “A Muppet Family Christmas” – and eating pizza with Grandma and Gichan at our house.  Once they left, it was time to hit the showers, and put on new jammies!  Or Christmas ones, if you’re Thumper, don’t care what you’re wearing, and have multiple hand-me-downs from two older brothers.

One last check on Santa via NORAD, and then it was bedtime!

A Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Believe it or not, it really has been 16 years that we have been posing our kid (and later, kids) with Friend and Doc’s boys in front of a Christmas tree to celebrate together.  We’re now at the point where the kids just know this picture is going to happen, so there’s no arguing about it.  The picture happens, then they get to open presents.

But we have come a long way from this first picture (taken in 2004)…

… to the one taken today, with just a few more brothers (on both sides) added.

Ane might be outnumbered, but she doesn’t mind.

And our secret to getting all the kids to at least look in one direction?  A cat video, being shown on my phone, while the Webmaster snaps away.  And Doc waving a plate of cookies behind the Webmaster.  We are experienced parents now, you know.

Can you believe that it’s the Friday before Christmas???  I only have today to finish things up before the kids get home from school.  Mom is busy doing ALL THE WRAPPING.

Christmas was a whole lot easier when we only had one child!

Ane was a couple days shy of her first birthday, and so very confused about all the things that were going on!  She liked the idea of ripping wrapping paper, but didn’t know how to finish opening boxes.  And we had just learned that I was pregnant, so by the the next year, Tad was a tiny little roly-poly baby, and Ane was much more into Christmas.

So we really only had one Christmas alone with Ane.  Sorry, kid.  If you’d showed up on time, we would have had two Christmases alone with you.

Ever since Thumper started swimming lessons on a regular basis, they have provided him with a really great weekly sensory fix.

He absolutely loves being in the water – maybe a little too much – so it’s vitally important that he has these swimming lessons, for safety’s sake!