opening presents with great-grandma
2011 January 2 · 5:53PM · Sunday
C and Ruby opening presents
2011 January 2 · 5:54PM · Sunday
Grandma Susie hugs
2011 January 2 · 5:54PM · Sunday
cars!
2011 January 2 · 5:55PM · Sunday
C liked the cars
2011 January 2 · 5:55PM · Sunday
Grandma helps Apl
2011 January 2 · 5:55PM · Sunday
Apl working on the box
2011 January 2 · 5:55PM · Sunday
Ruby looks at the pattern
2011 January 2 · 5:56PM · Sunday
The girls got matching dress patterns. Mom and I made the one for Apl, and we gave Ruby the fabric so she could help make her own dress.
Apl’s dress
2011 January 2 · 5:57PM · Sunday
Apl hugs Ruby
2011 January 2 · 5:57PM · Sunday
Apl losing her balance
2011 January 2 · 5:57PM · Sunday
She is so funny! I’m sure she was only pretending to fall over… she’s quite the actor.
Grandpa’s new shirt
2011 January 2 · 5:58PM · Sunday
Susie’s new kitty cup
2011 January 2 · 5:59PM · Sunday
Apl totally fell in love with Grandma Susie’s kitty-shaped salt and pepper shakers, and once when we were at a second-hand shop Apl saw this cup with a kitty stuck on the side and really wanted it, too. We bought it and decided to give it to Grandma Susie for Christmas as a remembrance of Apl.
great-grandma’s present
2011 January 2 · 5:59PM · Sunday
great-grandma’s photo book
2011 January 2 · 6:00PM · Sunday
Grandma loves her pictures! Now that Grandma is spending so much of her time in Iowa, and all her pictures are back at her house in Illinois, she doesn’t get to see them as much as she’d like, especially the really old-timey pictures. So I made a little photo book for her with her oldest pictures, of her mother’s and father’s families, her childhood and growing up in Savanna, and courtship with Grandpa. She totally loved it!
Grandpa Randy’s surprise
2011 January 2 · 6:16PM · Sunday
Randy’s Tales of the Gun
2011 January 2 · 6:17PM · Sunday
Mom always joked with Dad about the boring documentaries he used to like to watch on PBS, but then of course always had fond memories of doing this together. Chris and I bought them a DVD player for Christmas, and Mom bought Dad these DVDs — “Tales of the Gun” — sounds fascinating!
We usually celebrate Christmas over a long period of time, to avoid the Christmas-morning freak out. But this year things got a little out of hand! We celebrated Christmas for like 5 weeks this year! We finally had one last Christmas hurrah when we arrived in Iowa. We opened the last of the presents and had a really great time.