6 Grandchildren & Santa

Today Santa was kind enough to stop by my mom's house to take a picture with all the kids so that we didn't have to cart everyone to the mall. Julie coordinated the event since she loathes malls more than anything. Good job Julie, and good job Santa. Santa was as jolly as ever! Jack and Ryan took the whole thing very seriously, and seemed to be totally wowed that Santa was sitting in Grammy's living room. Finnley screamed the second Santa walked in the front door, and Jovie screamed the second I put her down. It was eventful, and the video that Rob took is priceless. My pictures on the other hand didn't turn out very well. I wasn't paying much attention to my settings, so my red eye is off, as well as my indoor flash. Oh well, it's a pretty cute sight anyway.

Grammy, Finnley (20 months), Almira (4 days), Ryan (4), Jovie (11 months), Peter (5 months), Jack (4)

A little more torture:)

Me and Almira. Beth and Adam welcomed baby girl Almira Kathryn on Monday night. She weighed 6 pounds, 12 ounces, was 20 inches long, and is a sweet little girl. Beth and Adam are proud first parents, and are doing great! We are all proud aunties, but I think Adam's family wins the prize for most excited/enthusiastic. This is the first grandbaby for the Hodgins family, and the girls are just loving and spoiling Almira already.

Tis the season

Here was Jovie being rewarded with a Christmas cookie and juice for being a perfect angel after a short (20 minute) trip to Target on Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile, Jack was serving part of his punishment in his bedroom for being an absolute monster in Target, which is of course why our trip lasted 20 minutes.  I have never had a problem with my eldest child in a store before. Nothing that could not be solved with a free children's size popcorn or a piece of gum. I think however that there was a sense of holiday madness in the air, and Jack just decided to run with it. Needless to say I will NOT be going back to any store in the near future with either of the children, and I am so thankful that Rob ordered all of our Christmas presents online 2 weeks ago, making it possible for me to avoid department stores altogether until after Christmas! Oh...the rest of Jack's punishment is that he lost all his video games until after Christmas. This is a big deal for this child. In his free time he lives for playing Lego StarWars or Lego Indiana Jones video games. The kid hums and sings the theme songs for these games every chance he gets. I think it will be good for him to have a break.

Here is Jack tromping through the tree farm last weekend. He was pretending he was Darth Vader, and with his pretend light saber he was slashing through the tall brush saying "Wait for me Darth Vader's mom!" Did I mention we were taking a break from his StarWars video game?

Yes, that is Rob, my dad, and my brother in law Adam tying our tree to the racks of our brand new (old) mini-van. We got this mini-van from Rob's parents a while back, and are loving it! We only had to make one stop on the way home to secure the tree back to the racks, but that was because of a harsh Northeasterly wind.