Merry Christmas!

Sunrise Christmas morning and the girls were up and getting ready for the busy day!

Ellie was very excited for Christmas. For a few days beforehand we would ask her what day was coming up and she would answer “presents!” We told her that that wasn’t what the day was called, and then would ask what Christmas was all about and she would then answer “Jesus is born.”

Ellie hugging presents on Christmas Eve.. materialism starts early

After the men cooked a mean breakfast, the kids opened their stockings to keep them out of trouble while we prepared for the rest of the day.



We then read the Christmas story and Ellie helped place the pieces for the Nativity set.

She made her own addition with her My Little Pony that she got in her stocking.

Adelaine helped Uncle “Dew” play some Christmas songs on his guitar. Her fingering needs help.

After this we got into the business of tearing paper. Ellie was only too happy to rip stuff open..

while Adelaine needed a bit more help. She was more interested in tasting the paper strewn about the floor than opening up presents.

This was definitely a girlie Christmas for Ellie. No trucks, tractors or toy snakes.. instead she got dolls, a doll house, a toy kitchen, frilly dress shoes, and so on. Both girls got lots of books and other things to keep them busy!

I received a GPS unit from my wife and family.

Now I can keep track of where important things are.. like where we parked the van and exactly where the chip isle is in the local grocery store. Never get lost again!

After a few hours more family started to arrive. We were able to get some wonderful photos of the girls happily sitting with Great Grandma.

After a huge meal we all relaxed with family and reflected on the blessings God has sent our way, the most important one being the birth of Jesus Christ, our whole reason for celebrating this time of year. I hope you had a great Christmas too.

At the Christmas Parade

This weekend we took the girls to see the Christmas parade in town. It was a nice, small town parade with lots of local people involved in the rides and contributing to the festive spirit. It was also the night for the lighting of the trees in the park downtown.

Santa made his customary appearance at the end of the parade, after which everyone was encouraged to head over to the Cow Palace for some free hotdogs, popcorn and entertainment.

While the Cow Palace is a great indoor venue located close to the route taken by the parade, the bovine odor inside was not conducive to making me hungry for the supplied hot dogs.. but I digress. Inside there was face painting, balloon animals and crafts for the kids. There was also some entertainment by a clown and some singing of children’s Christmas songs..

..none of which enthused Ellie with the Christmas spirit. That’s my girl! Bah humbug to the core.

Ellie’s friend Evan was there too and they had a great time with our glow sticks, which Joe and I were kind enough to share with the kids.

There was a very nice choral piece of Christmas music. Following that was a solo by a young fellow singing Felice Navidad.

Also for our entertainment, the Divine Dancers stopped by for a performance at the Cow Palace.

Joe didn’t know what to think of the Town Crier as he announced the grand finale..

.. which included a confetti cannon! Cannons are always good.

With that we headed home for more fun with the glow sticks..

which eventually made it into the bathtub! Glow sticks are cool.

All in all it was a fun night out with the family in the (mostly) fresh air.

New Camera

Awhile ago we mentioned that we had won a camera for a childrens photo contest. Well, it finally arrived and we are enjoying our new Lumix FX10 camera.

It is a nice little camera that will be good to have around the house for snapshots and short videos of the kids. As a point-and-shoot it has the inherent problems of red-eye, shutter lag and some other quirks, but it’s small size and ease of use will be nice. It is hard to stick an SLR camera in your pocket for a family outing..

So here are some samples from the new camera:

Chocolate Face

“Its cold, daddy, its cold!”

Awkward sleeping position.. Adelaine is folded in half and sucking her thumb.

See more new photos at www.flickr.com/photos/johnstonekids