Nina and Papa's Christmas, 2009

Saturday was a day FULL of Christmas. After short naps for both girls in the car on the way back to Jefferson City (maxed out to its full potential for Mac, since she fell asleep literally before we even made the left turn onto Highway 50!), we settled into Nina and Papa's living room for Round #2 of the day.

We mixed it up a bit this year and started with Nina and Papa opening THEIR gifts from us. This year, they got their yearly Shutterfly photo calendar, a clock for their room that projects the time up onto the ceiling (might sound funny, but it rocks to not have to roll over and squint to see the clock on the nightstand - trust me!), and their favorite annual gift - a gift card to their favorite movie theater!

We then moved on to our tradition of rotating through the kids, youngest to oldest, opening one present each time through. We started with their annual ornaments. Nina says that picking out the kids' Hallmark ornaments is her favorite part of Christmas shopping! This year, Macie got the standard "2nd Christmas" ornament, and Ivie, appropriately, a Wizard of Oz-themed one.

I wish I could have frozen that evening in time. What fun it was to sit back and soak up the excited frenzy in that cozy room. It was a snapshot of complete family happiness. Seven smiley kids, surrounded by their blessed parents and grandparents.

Thank you, God, for giving us so many reasons to celebrate!

Sarah's Crew, The Andersons (minus Tony, who hates to be photographed even worse than Dale...)

Scott's Crew, The Schaeperkoetters

The Herman Girls...

And Matt and Carla (who hopefully were not scared by the madness)