her family christmas

gayle, denny, diana, and matt all enjoying the feast!
barbara opening up the many gifts diana had so much fun getting for her. i think that diana's favorite part of christmas is actually picking out gifts for her sister...
barbara was totally excited about being the christmas elf. thats the person who gets the gifts from under the tree and pass them out!

dad, diana, and barbara enjoying the afternoon together!

allen christmas

little baby lucy was having a fantastic time opening all her gifts! being the only baby in the family, she got totally spoiled!
other then the coconuts, we also got this strange gift. its a tiki bobble head. strange. what exactly do we do with this now?

christmas: aftermath

the kids wrap up play time and get ready to head home. even though the kids are leaving, they get to keep playing when they get home! papa really wanted to keep those pictures of timmy and hang them up in the living room, but unfortunately jill took them back home with her. rats!

christmas dinner

earlier in the day diana helped out with getting the taco meat cooked, while mom prepared the jalapeno pepper side dish. good thing she had those gloves on, the juice on those things always somehow seems to make it in your eyes!
for dessert the girls wanted us to have the cupcakes they had baked and decorated earlier. they even made special ones for diana and i!
so cute, and so yummy!

time for prizes 3

oh, dear sweet aves. she really loves musical instruments. last year she got a microphone, which was one of the best memories of christmas last here- her amazing singing performances of songs with made up lyrics! (watch the hilarious video again here!) well, she did not disappoint this year when she got a barbie guitar! she was so excited! her first response to seeing what the guitar was 'here comes rock and roll!'
she's a little rock star in training, shes got the head mic and everything!
not to be out done, tweets got a keyboard from mema too! the two of them make quite an impressive rock group, huh?
the kids no me so well, for christmas the three of them got me one of my favorite things: ketchup! they are so clever, those kids!

time for prizes 2

one of the prizes bub got was a mini air hockey table- they are going to have a blast with that thing!
everybody wants to know what aunt diana got!
the one thing tweets wanted for christmas was a fur real doggy- and she got it from mema and papa! she was thrilled! we couldnt get that thing out of the box quick enough for her!tweets was so excited about her fur real doggy that she spent the rest of the night walking that thing around by its leash, giggling all the way!

time for prizes 1

since this is the first year that aves is allowed to have barbie stuff, diana and i got her a barbie horse. she loved it!
uncle chad, who wasnt able to be with us this year, sent gifts for the kids anyway! bub got this cool snowmobile style sled for going down the hill in their back yard. he was super excited about it!
one of diana's many prizes from mom and papa was this little set of lip stuff. she loves them and is looking forward to using them all up. tweets is there, of course, because when ever there is make-up related items she comes running! (good luck with that, jill...)
tweets was so pleased with her new barbie that her mema got for her- look at that smile!
diana and the girls playing with one of mema's toys before the gift giving began.