December Highlights

Time to Party. i brought out some costume jewelry that belonged to my Grandmas.

she's saying "Good job, Zeke!"

Mellenger Christmas Party

she fell asleep in the car and really needed more napping.
(ok, seems weird that that was my only highlight picture...i have 40 pics here, so i had to be selective somehow!)

Thomas Christmas Party

our salmon family

andrew freaking out b/c poppy grabbed some whole food from ezekiel

the puppet show the kids love!

santa arrived with a cool gift for every boy and girl

diedre and miles awestruck. waiting for their name to be called...

Back around home...

biking with her new dress and great shot of her hair

missy under the tree

Salmon Grandparents come to visit

happy to be doing the jobs that are mundane for parents :) and i'm so thankful for them and for their willingness to help out with the kids. They're awesome grandparents (and parents too).

Papa gives directions on the gingerbread construction...diedre drooled all over some of the candy, so we had to throw it out! ha ha

looking like a little princess lady wearing her new outfit and shoes from grammy and grandpa

Christmas Eve

we opened a few gifts Christmas Eve morning.
ezekiel loves this little dump truck.

playing with her new teaset

the kids got a wagon for two with a small cooler in it :)
we took it for a walk while our dinner cooked.

we decided to have our own Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve Day since we were heading to my parents the next day. For some reason, we always have rushed dinners together...last year it was because we planned it on a Saturday, and then i went into the hospital for an assessment...and stayed to give birth to ezekiel!
this time it was b/c i dont know how my oven works and i had broiled something before putting the turkey in. and you have to turn the dial off before turning the oven back on to cancel the broil...argh....so the turkey "cooked" for 3 hours, without barely cooking at all!
so it was a rush to eat before heading off to Christmas Eve service at 6pm where Derek and I were going to perform the Christmas song i wrote this year.

Christmas Day


diedre opening her stocking (it was my stocking as a little girl).

our morning went a little something like this:
we all opened stockings. ezekiel spotted a ball at the top of his stocking and didnt really progress past that as far as opening presents from the stocking. so his stocking took all day to open really.
we had a wonderful breakfast by grandpa.
daddy read the Christmas Story.
called auntie M and opened gifts online with her for an hour.
then we started opening gifts as a family around noon!
we didnt get all our gifts opened because of diedre getting a little burnt out, so we saved a couple to open either the next day or later.
then we headed over to my Mom & Dad's for Christmas Dinner.

ezekiel with the nativity set.

Christmas Dinner

heather and derek relaxing before dinner

the big feast

diedre being some sort of flowery monster

ezekiel sports a groovy cap

poppy wakes up for a present

Papere and ezekiel by the tree

"Happy Birthday Grandpa Salmon" (yes, on Christmas and we had a cake :)

The Windup

swimming with the grandparents

ezekiel is always happy if he's holding a ball :)

i was taking too long to give him dinner

he loves hats and he learned to walk around Christmas Day so he enjoys showing off his new skills.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year (much belated) from the Salmon Family
xo