Word play

One of our clients whose business is shooting portraits asked me to create a graphic for one of their featured Valentine products. I came up with a clever concept incorporating elements from both photography and Valentine's Day...

But alas! It was passed up in favor of the "safer" version where the message on the heart reads SMILE...

Mostly Christmas

When I think about it, I seem to remember having a nice relaxing Christmas. We stayed home (until the afternoon of the 25th when we drove down to visit grandparents and aunts, uncles and cousins in Georgia), we didn't have a bunch of extra family here for the main day -- which is fun to do on occasion, but really makes me appreciate the years when it is just our own little (ok, not so little) family. We got the kids some good stuff but didn't go overboard. Joseph's brother Jonathan, my sister Kelly and her husband Micah had Christmas Eve dinner with us which was really nice. If I am going to spend time cooking something a bit special it is nice to have more adults eating, kids just don't appreciate good food, and it was very good. We had Cranberry Chicken with Pears, Sweet Potato Casserole, Warm Spinach Salad, and Bread. Jonathan made some peppermint ice cream and we had a "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake -- strawberry cake with cream cheese frosting.

In case you didn't know, Jesus's favorite color is pink and this year he turned one.

We missed the Christmas Eve service at church, partly because many of us had nasty colds and partly because I can't cook fast and we were either going to get to eat or go to church and I chose eating. So Joseph read the Christmas story from the Bible and the kids dressed up and acted it out.



They had to double up on roles. Asa was Joseph, a shepherd, a wise man and Herod. Ezra was a shepherd and a wise man. Marlow was Mary, an angel and Herod (until Asa took over). And Eliot just wandered around the "set" knocking things over and destroying the make shift manger over and over. The part about the whole Christmas event that makes me think I can't call it "nice and relaxing" is the part where we put off too much till Christmas Eve and stayed up to 5:00 am getting ready for the next day. Ugh.

Christmas morning was a lot of fun. We took it fairly slow for a family with four kids under the age of seven. I told the boys when I put them to bed not to come wake us up. I said, "Eliot will wake us up early enough. If you wake up first, don't go downstairs. Either play quietly in your room or turn on the TV and find a cartoon." So when I got up they were watching A Christmas Story. But they had had a peek downstairs because Ezra announced that Santa had come and hid presents in the tree. Interestingly I have told them that Santa isn't real, that he is a fun story but is make believe. They believe anyway...I guess in our society it is pretty confusing what is real and what isn't....especially when everyone from the cashier at the grocery store to their teachers talk about Santa constantly this time of year.

Ezra and Asa helping Eliot open a gift....he still doesn't really get the whole gift unwrapping thing.

Marlow got some ballet clothes, which she wears pretty much everyday over her regular clothes.

Eliot loves to play with my cell phone so we got him his own toy version...he liked it.

We opened gifts, and then ate a breakfast trifle and the quiche that had been cooking while we were unwrapping things. Finally we did stockings. We hadn't really thought through the stocking content very well and they were full of mostly candy. Of course they wanted to eat it, but it was still morning and we had just eaten breakfast so we didn't want them eating a bunch of candy. They had a little and then I put the rest away....most of it is still stashed in the cupboard. Well, I am kind of going into a lot more detail then I had intended to...mostly I wanted to post pictures for Michelle since she is so far away. So in quick summary, but certainly not the least of our Christmas holiday: we visited with family in Georgia for a few days (the Nichols clan minus Michael who was far away and missed by all) and came home to welcome other family (My parents and three youngest sisters) for a couple days visit. We had a great time with family, got more gifts, played games, watched movies, ate food etc...

At the Nichols: Zoe, Marlow, Max, Asa, Ezra and Eliot

The boys: Max, Asa, Ezra and Eliot

Eliot really liked the Hulk fists that Bailey got for them.

We had a bonfire one night, burning up all the brush Joseph cleared from our backyard that afternoon.

Marlow with her Aunt Marlow staying warm by the fire.

Finally, a shot in front of our tree before the girls left to go home....I'm not very good at keeping up with taking pictures and then hurry to get a few right before they leave town.
l to r: Eliot, Ezra, Asa, Carson, Marley, Marlow and Bailey