So between the time of my last post and this post, a few things that were in my perfectly laid-out plans went the way of the snow here in Arizona….non-existent, and not going to happen because we all got the flu.
Christian was luckily able to attend school up to the last day where he ran in the Reindeer Run and I helped out at his class party where he and each child made their own gingerbread houses. Here is a picture of him in his antlers holding his gingerbread house (complete with a drawbridge).
My sister Julie and her kids drove into town to visit us the day before Christmas Eve, but because I wasn’t sure if we still had germs we arranged for them to wait an extra day before showing up to our house.
Christmas Eve
My sister Julie and her husband Jake and their two little girls Lily and Kate came to have Christmas with us. We had a wonderful time with them here. The first line of business is Julie and I took Christian and Lillian to see Santa. It was pretty much the world’s longest line. Then we went home and started making dinner and because of my own oversight, we ended up having a Thanksgiving-like meal minus anything but sides. :)
That night was very fun as we sat around the tree listening to Jared reading the Christmas story. Vivian and Kate are very alike in mannerisms and it was so fun to actually watch them play together while he read.
Here’s Vivian with her favorite little panda bear doll.
This is one of my favorite photos of Kate and Vivian rocking in the rocking chair together.
Jared was intent on reading the kids the Real Christmas Story and Lily and Christian were trying very hard to listen so that Santa could see them being good. 
Here are the Two December Birthday girls. So cute!
Christmas Morning
It looks like Santa decided to stop by….
Right: Christian and Vivian’s loot and Jared, Ginger and mine.
When we lined up the kids to come into the room, Vivian refused to come in until I turned off the train (she apparently is terrified of it). After that, the kids were pretty excited to run in and check out the magic.
I just love the look on Christian’s face as he blurts out “This is what what I always wanted!”
Vivian was very intent at unwrapping her gifts.
Kate looking darling in her new barrettes Santa left her.
The girls looking at their new toys together.
Later that day…
We decided to take some Family Photos for Christmas. The kids seemed to have another idea. Lillian would not stop hanging on Christian and he was getting rather embarrassed. She kept laughing and saying “It’s like I’m he’s husband.” Christian was not amused. Here’s an illustration of Lillian hanging on Christian
We tried adding the other little girls up it seems that the more kids you put in a photo the problems get exponential of getting kids to pose together.
Everyone has decided to lean on Christian in this photo.
In these ones we tried to get the older kids to hold the littler ones but that didn’t go over too well…
Sweet Vivian is the only one I could get to pose alone…and she didn’t even know I was taking these. 
Here are the cute photos Julie took of Jared and I.
These are the ones of Julie and Jake and their family that Jared took with our Camera.
It was so fun to have them here for our Merry little Christmas.
It was so much fun! I love all the cute pictures you got! Especially with Vivian and Kate together! It was so fun to see how many mannerisms they have in common.
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