Santa Report 2008

The festivities continue in our family on Christmas Eve when we all meet at my mother's home for soup and desserts. This year Mom was fortunate enough to have all of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren here. All 32 of us crammed into her house results in bedlam, but she loves it.

We were all back at home by 8:30 where Duchess and family joined us. We gathered in the front room and the pajama unveiling began. This year we started with the little one picking out a color and then everyone had to guess whose pjs they were. It turned out to be easy guessing. It still amazes me that this is the one thing that they get so excited about! (Yes, Athena is really texting in the photo.) After Eris read the new Christmas book the kids went to bed and the parents went to work.

Christmas morning was a bit quieter this year. There weren't as many gifts to open but I believe everyone was delighted with what was in their stocking. The above photo is Littlest Ms. discovering what Santa left for her. She had been insisting that she wanted a fish for Christmas. A fish? Really? Well, that's what she got. After some careful consideration she firmly announced that his name would be "WiseMan". Seriously, is that not a perfect name for a Christmas fish?

The last photo is of the four older kids opening their gift from me and Zeus. It was a Scrabble game with letters in it that they had to unscramble to find out what it was. Jubee got it right away, Bubba soon after, but in all fairness they had some hints beforehand that it was the name of a place. With a little help Jr. and Little figured it out: YELLOWSTONE.

Tomorrow morning we are taking these four on a three-day trip to Yellowstone National Park. While there we will tour the park in a snowcoach and see the wonders of this national treasure in it's winter glory. All of the snowfall in the last week will hopefully make this a trip for all of us to remember! Everyone has cameras and binoculars ready to check out the wildlife and Old Faithful. Hopefully I will be posting daily about our adventures so stay tuned.

Again, if you are interested you can see more photos at the Shooting Blog.

Now, I really must go pack my bags!

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