Our first Christmas in Kansas was very happy...complete with snow and a surprise (for the kids) visit from Grandma Gordon. This is a picture of the kids acting out the nativity, unprompted by me - I thought the costumes they came up with were pretty great (although, who knows what Reed was supposed to be). The rest of the pictures are from Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We opened our new pajamas to sleep in (as per usual) while we waited for Santa to come. Opening the presents Christmas morning was very exciting for our five very eager kids. I've always loved just sitting back and watching their enthusiasm spill over. The room filled up with much more than just wrapping paper! Nolan and Colby got BB guns this year (when in Kansas...!). For Hanna it was the year of "My Little Ponies." Liam got what he had been asking for since before the season began - Hulk hands and a play kitchen. Reedy was happy with a few trains and a "Perry the Platypus" pillow pet. Scott and I actually bought each other gifts for the first time since the kids came and the schooling began - a stereo dock for me (I love it) and a fancy watch for him. Even Grandma Gordon got new jammies and a stuffed stocking with little gifts from the kids.
After gorging ourselves on the gooiest breakfast I know how to make, we went out to play in the snow and shoot guns in the woods. The rest of the day was spent cooking and eating. Scott got in on the action for Christmas dinner and produced our most exciting culinary creation to date...a prime rib roast with hot au jus that was absolutely mouth watering. We plan to make that a permanent Christmas tradition. Since we invited two sets of missionaries to Christmas dinner, we had to set up some church tables in the basement to make everyone fit, which meant we had to decorate the ugly, smelly basement. Scott tackled the lights in the rafters and I tackled the smell with some hard-core candles. It wasn't ugly or smelly when we were done! And dinner was awesome!
