Reflecting on Christmas 08

The day after Christmas has a feel all its own, quiet, cluttered, a time to regroup and a time to reflect. We had a wonderful time together as a family and I cherish the fact that we were all together. We started the day with coffee and homemade cinnamon rolls.


Elise tried the cinnamon rolls, passed on the coffee, enjoyed her banana and bottle.

Mikaela is waiting to get the show on the road, very patiently I might add.

After reading the Christmas story we commenced with the gift opening. Having a one year old this year was really lots of fun. Ellie got so excited and loved what everyone was getting.

Ellie opening her first gift. She was catching on that inside this wrapping there was neat stuff, sometimes even toys. Elise had fun helping to pass out the gifts. This one was for her Mommy. Kathryn waiting her turn.

A little tradition that I started with Mikaela last year is to get her a place setting of dishes. This is the pattern chosen for this year. Just a few hours later she was putting it to good use and had her Christmas dinner on them.

Tommy and Denise taking a little break in all the action.

Denise modeling her new apron.

Dan and his new cross country skis. They were really hard to wrap in case you were wondering.

Brian and his treasure. Pretty much everything he got had to do with hiking or climbing. Here he is pictured with his new climbing cam, a device which goes into a crack in the side of the mountain and then is released to fill the space and then the climber can secure himself to the mountain. If you don't understand my explanation you can talk to him.

The "after presents are opened" look with gift wrap and boxes scattered all around. After presents the kids play a game of Skipbo.

As the day rolls by everyone starts to get a little hungry. As is our tradition we have a rib roast on Christmas day and though we try hard to put the roast in to be ready at a given time the tendency is for the roast to get done when "it" feels like it. We were suppose to eat at 2:00 but the internal temperature of the roast was like 90 degrees so we were waiting awhile. Elise got in a little nap and when she woke up it was about done. Here she is waiting in her high chair for her dinner. As it turned out she didn't really eat very well but had several servings of ketchup.

The rest of us were a little bigger eaters. We enjoyed a wonderful meal together.

And here is what we waited for. It was worth the wait - oh so yummy. We won't get this again until next Christmas.