Van Citters: Christmas

We spent our first Christmas together with just our immediate family. Although I wasn't excited to not visit either the Dums or Van Citters extended families, it actually was very nice to relax for a bit of time with the kids and Doug. We had originally thought that staying here might also give us some time to do outdoor winter activities in New Hampshire - but we didn't have a bit of snow over the Christmas to New Year's period (and still don't). We filled our time with a bit of ice skating, a lot of model rocket launching, and lots of Lego construction (jets and space shuttles).

First, you've probably all noticed that you didn't get a Christmas card this year. I actually tried many times to get a nice picture of the three kids. First, I attempted one in early December on a nice snowy day. But... Lily was much too interested in eating the snow off her mittens.

Donovan, Lilian, and Nicholas

Nicholas pulling Lily

Donovan pulling Lily

I then attempted to dress the kids up in their fancy outfits that they wore at Donovan and Sarah's wedding. I should have stopped early on, but every attempt was a failure. Lily was just not in the mood - as you can see from the following series.

My one "almost" good shot - but Nicholas wasn't smiling. Notice the ornament to distract Lily. : )

Lily crawling away - even though both boys had ornaments to entertain her.

Lily was done with that... and that was the end of my attempts.

You should all be getting a New Year's card soon! : )

On to Christmas preparations. Santa visited Hanover again this year.

Doug, Lily, Nicholas, and Donovan with the tree.

Decorating

Making popcorn strings

We took the kids to church on Christmas Eve. They did a pretty good job sitting through the service. Donovan went up to the front of the church with the other children twice, and Nicholas reluctantly went up for the Christingle ceremony where each child received an orange with a candle in it, and with four pieces of candy attached to toothpicks. Lily spent the whole service trying to remove my earrings...

One of the most relaxing parts of this Christmas is that we spaced out opening all of the presents that we received. We spent time playing with, reading, or talking about each present before the next one could be opened, which was really fun!

Lily with the "Chia pet" from Ray, Malu, Neel, and Hael. Our chia pet now has a thin layer of fur (chia plants look like sprouts) and a bunch of seeds that are waiting to sprout.