Christmas Round Up -- with very askew pictures

I suppose there is some way to turn all these pictures around, but it is not within my patience at presence to discover it, so bear with my sideways pictures.

A week before Christmas things really got started. Andrew and I made gingerbread cookies

And put another sticker on our VERY classy advent calendar:
Then Andrew's little friend came over and the two of them ate icing and sprinkles -er, I mean decorated cookies -- together.
We set up the Christmas tree. Aaron was especially excited about being able to see both the tree and the reflection of the tree in the window. He just kept pointing and saying "ights! ights!"

He was also pretty excited about the ornaments. We had suspected this would be the case and so took the precations of moving the boys' drawers out of their room and putting the Chistmas tree on top of it. As long as we don't leave any drawers open (as Aaron will use them as a step up to the tree), we're still good.
The next day the weather warmed up and we actually managed to have a sucessful ride on the sled. I put my bag in the back behind the little bump, then Andrew leaning on the bag and Aaron leaning on Andrew. This was much more agreeable arrangement for everyone. On the way back Andrew got out and pretended to be a horse and pulled the sled, which was also good.

Here are the boys in their matching sweaters all ready for the Christmas eve service. They managed about 10 min. of the service and then were overwhelmed. They both fell asleep waiting for Dad to be ready to go home.Christmas morning. Andrew was pretty excited about the blocks. He said "NOW I will have enough wood for building!" He loved the chocolate money in his stocking and his robot (I'll post pictures once I'm done the embroidery on them) best, but was pretty happy with the blocks, too. Aaron really liked all the paper. He spend all morning waving it around and shredding it.Boxing day we had our sumptuous Christmas feast with the Hetkes. I made a very good turkey (if I do say so myself) and a great apple pie, while Sharon supplied veggies and potatoes. A good and delicious time was had by all.

On the 27th I purchased my Christmas present -- a new laptop (hooray!) which means I should be able to post more often without too much collateral damage to our bookshelves and computer cords. I tried to buy locally, but was informed by the guy at the local store that they had sold out of the one I was looking for before Christmas and had not brought in any more since they don't make any money on boxing day anyway. So now I am eagerly awaiting my personal Santa to drop off my present.

So, all in all a sucessful holiday. It was fun making the big meal, having people over and starting and continuing holiday traditions that we can carry on with the boys as they grow. Hope you all had a great Christmas, too.