{christmas 2009 in photos}

as is usually the case, our christmas celebrations are strung out for several days. i took a million pictures, as did my family. i've grabbed some of their shots already, but not nearly all of them. my weekly recaps could never capture the true essence of our holiday, so here are some storyboards that i put together. all christmas photos can be seen here on my flickr account: christmas season 2009. you can also click on each of the storyboards to see more detail.

christmas eve isn't a big deal in our family, probably because we don't ever have spencer with us, and therefore intentionally don't have any big family celebrations. matt, coleman and i went and visited with my in-laws for a bit in the late afternoon. after we got home, mom came over for a visit. we played with mom's cricut and coleman loved playing in the scraps! this also happened to be coleman's 10-month birthday.

christmas morning: since matt had to work on christmas day, i thought it'd be pretty depressing to stay at home. so, as soon as coleman and i were up and at 'em, we headed over to sherry's house. we got there just in time to see the boys open their gifts. there was the annual silly string war, of course! mom was there also and coleman got his gifts from her and sherry. coleman got a cool tunnel, a ride-on rocket, and a real camo bib. of course, he was most entertained by some votive candles aunt sherry had set out. that afternoon, i picked spencer up and we hung at sherry's for a while longer.

blackwell christmas: spencer, coleman, mom and i went by our house for a brief stop - some quick baking, let the dogs out, etc.then we headed over to matt's parents' house (where matt met us). we had a yummy meal and exchanged gifts there. spencer got some games and a gift card. coleman got toys and books. matt got a new video game and i got some boots and jeans.

our christmas eve: we do our christmas eve traditions on christmas night. basically we repeat the whole thing for spencer. we have several traditions for this night and i love them all. first we each open one gift which are new pjs for everyone. after we change into them, spencer opens one more gift, which is always a new christmas book. he then reads it aloud to us. afterwards, we put out milk and cookies for santa. and lastly, some treats in the yard for the reindeer. then it's off to bed so santa can come (he makes a special trip to our house a day late for spencer).

our christmas morning: so our christmas morning is actually the day after christmas. thanks to coleman, all of us except spencer were awake and downstairs before 5:30. we were impatient like a bunch of little kids and woke him up not much after that. he, of course, checks to see how much santa ate. santa left the boys a neat letter this year, with a piece of his coat fur for good luck. we always begin by opening our stockings - helping cooper and rio (and now coleman) with theirs. spencer (and coleman) work their way through the gifts from santa. and then all of us open our gifts from one another. we always go overboard and everyone has so much great stuff. i can't even begin to list all the goodies we got. coleman was much more into the wrapping paper, bows and tissue paper than anything, but he did play with some of his new toys. spencer's big gift from us was a laptop and he was quite pleased!

breakfast for dinner: later that day, after the mess had been cleaned up, we had my family (basically just my mom and sherry's crew) over for dinner, which was actually breakfast food. we made pancakes, waffles, bacon and sausage. very simple. very easy. very casual. very relaxed. get the point? there were a few more gifts to be exchanged.