Holiday Extravaganza!

Now that it is over and we are all healthy and well rested

I can finally get to sharing some of the photos from the holiday extravaganza
(or as we really like to say around here...the holiday BONANZA!)

For the most part we faired well except for one now minor
but seemed major at the time bump in the road.
You see like many families we ended up with a bit of illness over the holidays.
The good thing is it only hit 3 out of 5 of us.
The bad thing is that all the girls in the house had the stomach flu Christmas Eve night
into Christmas day....perfect timing...wouldn't you say?

So our holiday celebrations were muted by exhaustion and
our Christmas decor now included a few extra buckets lying around.
We missed celebrating with Mike's family at his parents house however on
Christmas evening we were blessed by loving family members who brought the party to us.

I will spare you the pictures of wiped out kids and Mom
and share with you the ones we are choosing to remember.


enjoying Christmas treats


Amelia and Natalie in their holiday finery


Natalie and Mom



Sam and Dad

Amelia and Mom

Christmas Eve
family photo

the classic toy...lite brites!

the disaster Santa left behind
Christmas morning

Christmas Day gift opening

Natalie and Amelia chatting with their tia

(sporting their new princess shirts from Santa)

Natalie and the giraffe she desperately wanted
Thanks Tia!

Sam posing in front of Santa's big gift to all the kids.


Thank heavens Santa had enough foresight to make sure
there were enough remote controlled trains for everyone!

Santa must be a highly trained professional.