Joy to the World! Santa came. . .

We had a fun filled Christmas this year. Grandma and Grandpa Johnson came down to visit on Christmas Eve and stayed the week. We had a big turkey dinner and all took part in our traditional Christmas program. The tradition is that everyone shares something (a story, song, dance etc.) Tori did a dance and performed her piano recital songs for us. Alyssa and Mackenzie led us in a Christmas song, Grandma shared stories of Christmas when she was a little girl in Hong Kong, dad shared a Christmas story, we watched the Nativity and Mr. Krueger's Christmas, and we acted out the nativity. Mackenzie was an adorable Mary, Alyssa the donkey, Ben was Joseph, I was a shepherd, and Tori was the angel. Grandpa was our narrator. It was fun to have a few more participants this year!

Every birthday and Christmas when I was growing up, my dad would gather all the presents we received around us and take a picture of us. It was awesome to later look back and remember what I had gotten each year. I continue that tradition so here are this year's Christmas gift collages.


Mackenzie got a "jumping thing" from Santa.



Alyssa got a digital camera.



Tori got squinkies. If you haven't heard of them yet, they are these tiny little rubber people and animals that come in little plastic bubbles. They look like they come from a 25 cent vending machine.

Here are some of my other favorite pics from the week.


Snuggling with Grandpa. Alyssa loved having Grandma and Grandpa visit and kept asking when they were leaving because she didn't want the fun to end.

We visited the Moody Gardens Aquarium in Galveston and rode the ferry to Port Bolivar. The girls (and Ben) loved feeding the birds off the back of the boat. There were probably 50 birds that would swarm around you. The hoods are on to prevent any "droppings." It was so much fun we bought more bread and rode the ferry back to Galveston.