Christmas Day!

We had a great Christmas! We still missed our families back home, but Cliff's parents and brother, Corby, were nice enough to stay up late to spend Christmas morning with us via web cam. So it felt like we had family here. :) It took Christian a little longer than I expected to figure out what was going on, but he caught on. He did a wonderful job of ripping off the wrapping paper by himself, and for the most part he played with the toy he unwrapped until we gave him another one. Cliff knew what his present was before hand (I had to tell him, because he was going to buy me the same thing. Booo.), but he did a lovely job of acting surprised anyway. And I think he has used his gift every day since then - it was a Senseo coffee maker. We had another relaxing day of playing with Christian and the new Christmas gifts, playing Christmas music. In the afternoon we talked on the phone with our families during their Christmas morning. We had another great dinner. We don't cook well, so we're pretty easily impressed. :) It was a bit more traditional - ham, real mashed potatoes, spinach, and french bread. Yummm. Looking back through, I noticed we didn't take as many pictures as we should have.

Christian climbing through the presents. He loves
climbing on anything that will sit still.

This is Christian opening a present from his Grammie J.
He needed a little help pulling things out of the bags. After
we got the first layer of tissue paper out and he could see that
something was inside, he was much more excited!

This is Christian drawing on his new doodle pad with
his new crayons (which he rarely eats now). You can
also see his delicious Christmas breakfast of Kix and
apple juice. :) Cliff was nice enough to make us all
pancakes after we finished opening presents. He even
cleaned up the kitchen after. Isn't he sweet? :)

These were our lovely internet guests who stayed up past
midnight to share Christmas morning with us.

This is our Christmas morning sunrise from our back door,
that we didn't see unti lafter we were finished with Christmas presents.
I have never been terribly excited about waking up for sunrises
as beautiful as they are. With the sun not rising until 8 or later,
I've had the wonderful privilege of seeing a few more. :)