Merry Christmas!

Santa brought Guitar Hero World Tour!



Frisco even got a present.

Our stockings were loaded.

Ryan got SOCKS! His Christmas list had included "socks (n0t)."

After about 15 minutes, we could tell Frisco had already loved her present. Apparently, that stuffing was yummy.








We had a blast opening all our presents,

and then trying them out!

We bought a fried turkey from Popeye's this year, and it was awesome to only have the side dishes to prepare.

What a great day!

The pizza before Christmas.

This wasn't our first time to invite family over for a Christmas Eve dinner.

It was, however, our first time to serve pizza at this shindig! We were happy to let the Hut take care of dinner for us this time around.

It was fun to host the grandparents, Mike, Kelly, the Davis kids and their significant others.

Erumi tried out a classic video game. (Even with most of our stuff packed, we still have a classic console or five lying around.)

We also had a tennis tournament going on, thanks to the Wii.


After our company went home, it was just us and Memaw. The kids read us a couple of stories.

Katie shared Santa Mouse with us.

Then we enjoyed a brief musical interlude.
Guitar Hero was not even turned on, but the kids were rockin' out!

Ryan read "The Night Before Christmas."

Present time! We each opened one gift as a warm-up to Christmas Day.






Ryan helped himself to Santa's cookie, so we had to get a replacement. (Replacement cookie, not Ryan.)

Katie even apologized for her brother's rude behavior.

She also made sure to leave treats for the reindeer.

Our inflatables gave their approval.

Ryan revised his earlier Santa note.

Believe it or not, this one was an improvement over his original composition!

And to all a good night!

It's Santa, baby.

We feared the streak had come to an end. It was Dec. 22, and we had yet to visit Santa. The mall was out of the question, and I thought our Santa picture collection might just have to end at 12. Then we received an email that Santa, attorney at law, would be making one more appearance at his southern North Pole.

Voila! Santa picture #13!

Our friend Alex was spending the night with us, so she got to be part of this annual tradition, too.

We admired the lights at Santa's house and then drove around to see more decorations. We saw some amazing houses but were disappointed when one of favorites was dark and deflated. Bummer.

This house, with its sports theme, is one of our favorites, so we were glad to see that they're still—ahem—game.

I can't help but wonder how much longer I'll be able to talk the kids into posing with Santa. Ryan will be a teenager (yikes!) by next Christmas, after all. Still, I'll keep adding to our collection as long as they'll let me!

Click here to see the slide show of our Santa pictures in our archives. For some reason, Blogger didn't care for me posting it here!