Christmas Memories....

What a busy December we enjoyed at our house, full of preparations for Advent, Christmas and the beginning of a new year. On December 11, we hosted the Ruggiero extended family for a traditional "seven-fishes" dinner, (minus a few fish!) Vince's mom would have been proud of everyone's efforts to continue the family traditions as best we could.
We had about 20 family members gathered together,
enjoying food, Christmas gifts, and a game of LRC too.

Here is Vince plus his brothers Martin and Art overseeing the shrimp cooking (and tasting) outdoors! Mild temperatures were with us that day.
On December 18, the Janne/Schuld families gathered for a festive Christmas party,
complete with a surprise visit from Santa Claus!
The 5 little ones were delighted, though our newest nephew Bode may not have realized what all the fuss was about! ;-)
He's looking rather "bored" (yawn) in this picture!

On Christmas Eve, Alissa and Alan included us in their birthday breakfast plans at Joe's Farm Grill, and they joined us for 6pm mass at St. Mary Magdalene parish. Afterwards, Vince and I went to their home for snacks and a movie ("Christmas Vacation"), so we enjoyed a few laughs together.
Here is Alissa and Alan in front of their beautifully decorated tree.

On Christmas morning, we prepared the turkey for grilling, plus some other food items. The "kids" planned to arrive by 11:00 a.m., so we would have gift-opening time together before Cailyn's nap. Here is precious Cailyn in her Christmas party dress...and of course, holding her "boo-bear"!
She was pretty much a "pro" at unwrapping gifts by Christmas Day...and wanted to help everyone else open too!

But one of Christmas Day's "most memorable moments" was when all our children surprised us with a computer webcam visit from Jen and Joe!! OMG...I had hoped for a timely phone call, but for us to be able to see each other on Christmas Day....what a GIFT that was!!
Jen and Joe watched us open gifts they had mailed to us, and we watched them open our gifts to them! Amazing technology, and it felt like they were really "with us" for the holiday! THANKS AGAIN for that beautiful surprise!
Cailyn played outdoors with her Aunt Alissa after lunch. Here she is in her "ugg boots" and stylish hat! ;-) What a cutie...she was collecting leaves in that container, and then decided it would make a great hat too!
While Cailyn and her grandpa napped, the rest of us played some board games, and then my parents joined us for Christmas Day dinner at 4:30. We had fun "opening our stockings" together.
Here's Cailyn showing Great Grandma Janne her finger-painting gift to us.

During the week after Christmas, we visited with friends, babysat Cailyn one day, and since we were both off work, it was a chance to slow our pace a bit. Here's a photo of our first "walk to the park around the corner" to play on the slides and in the sand!
On the 31st we had planned a family day outing to the zoo. However, since the high temperature in Phoenix was predicted to be in the low 40's, we changed our family outing to an indoor venue. Alissa, Alan, Mike, Corissa, Cailyn, Vince and I all went to the Phoenix Children's Museum and had a great time seeing Cailyn enjoy all the FUN hands-on activities there. Cailyn's aunt and uncle enjoyed the "noodle forest" with her! The place was packed with lots of creative activities for the younger set, and was very entertaining for grandparents who were mostly observing!
On January 2, it was time to pack away the Christmas tree. Cailyn LOVED the lights this year, and didn't want Christmas to end. As Vince and I were taking the lights off the tree, sweetie Cailyn was doing her best to put them back on!


This is one very long blog, but I wanted to share some of the joy of our holiday season with you. Happy New Year to everyone!