We wish you a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve! We spent the evening with Grammy, Bompy and the entire Pagel side of the family at my Uncle Dave and Aunt Sue's house.

Pigtail girls - Livi, Molly and Riley!

Four generations of girls.

Molly had a blast with my cousins' kids... Here's Charlie sharing the track with Molly.

This year's adult gift exchange theme was "funny". Mom ended up with one of the tamer presents. I received the best wrapped gift... it was in Rapping Paper - covered with the lyrics to Rapper's Delight.

Molly is one of the smaller kids around. Sweet little Andrew helped her up and down the steps and once Molly had his hand, she didn't want to let go.

Christmas morning! Santa came! Pull hard, Molly...

...It's a puppy!

Ahhh... it doesn't get much better than a blue candy cane in a blue sled with your Christmas jammies on.

I found books for Mom, Emily and myself with the classic song "Jesus Wants Me for A Sunbeam". It brings back sweet memories for mom and annoying ones for my sister. I always wake her up with a high pitched nasal version of the song.

The traditional Francis Christmas breakfast... round eggs and coffee cake.

This year we had a Christmas animal friend. A mouse got stuck in a bird food container. Molly, Dad and I went on a release mission.

Here's our little friend! We think he might have been the little drummer mouse from one of our new Christmas books.

Let it snow! We finally got snow on Christmas evening and we had just enough time before bed to try out the new sled in the front yard.

Deep in thought over a rousing game of Ticket to Ride.

The day after Christmas we drove up to Kalamazoo to visit Grandma VanderRoest. We had a great Wendy's lunch a sweet time of visiting together.

We took full advantage of the patchy snow!

First snowman of the year! Molly's special touch was the pair of "snowglasses".

We put the FUN in FUNDUE! Emily and Bryce made it on Friday night for some Raclette and Fondue.

Woo Hoo! His and hers camping chairs. We had another Christmas morning on Saturday.

Dave received an early birthday present from Em and Bryce... this is Communist Party mug.... Stalin and Mao and the gang are having a good old time.

Our special concert involved a trio this year. Emily and I played our few carols and Molly chimed in this time with her own version, a few octaves above ours. Molly's speciality songs are "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" and "Little Drummer Boy". Halfway through Silent Night, she changed up the lyrics with something along the lines of "I want to watch... Bubble Guppies!"

A bit more snow fell... just enough to cover a few hill out in the orchard.

Ahh! I'm being attacked by berserk wizards!... Smallworld is an exciting (and confusing) game!

While the rest of us played a game, Grammy and Molly opted for a Little Einsteins Marathon.

Emily is reading her gift to Molly... a book about Otis the tractor. Putt Puff Chuff!

Home again! We made it home this morning. While Dave made it to church, Molly needed to stay back with her pink eye infection. She's taking a break from all those fun new toys with a flip through a Curious George book. I love that she's so intrigued by books!