Christmas afternoon & evening

We had to take 2 vehicles down to my parents' house, because Steve was on call from 4pm-8pm.  He didn't end up getting any calls (and thus, no $$), but he had to go to the end of the driveway every 45 minutes or so to sync his phone with the system that notifies him of any jobs.

My sister and her family made the drive down from Toronto to be with us for the holiday--we were so happy to see them.  The kids got to play, we had a nice, relaxed dinner of salad, crock-pot beef stew and rolls.  YUM.  I made some Orange Spiced Sugar Cookies, and of course, my mom made her famous fudge.

Here's Eli & Maddie checking out my nephews' new Playmobile Circus Tent:

Five out of six grandkids (Luke was sleeping)

Luke & Isaac open some cool Marvel Transformers from their awesome matante! (that's me)

Christine, super excited about her new stoneware bar pan!

Christine (who is 4.5 months pregnant), Judah & Dave

Luker

Eli got a Nintendo DS from Mem & Pep!

Oh my goodness--Maddie got a Nintendo DS from Mem & Pep!

Holy Moley!  Patience got a Nintendo DS from Mem & Pep!!!!!!

(Now, just add in a lot of screaming and jumping up and down, and you'll know exactly what it sounded like!)

Tine & Judah

Isaac, Eli & Luke

(Don't you love how I got Luke to smile, but he wouldn't actually look like me?? LOL)

Judah, enjoying the quilt I made him (Isaac told me the next day that he was "sweating" under it. LOL)

I occassionally have flashes of brilliance, and buying the kids glow sticks to play with was one of them.  They ran around in the dark, playing Star Wars and such, for about an hour.  Dave was good enough to do the dishes, which he was able to do with Steve shining his "red light" onto the dishes.

We stayed until a little after 8pm.  Tine's boys had to go to sleep, and my kids were dying to play their Nintendo DS's.  It was a GREAT day.