Emily is 10.

 

Emily’s birthday is always over Christmas break so we typically get to celebrate and open presents at lunchtime.  She opened her presents first.  Another Kate DiCamillo book that we’ll try to read together.  Headphones from pbk – (Sister Katie a little jealous)  2 shirts, and another Mary Engelbreit calendar – (both sister’s jealous)

Katie made her a nice card.  Ryan gave her a piece of paper with ‘Em’ spelled in gum and a ‘ticket’ for a full RYAN AT YOUR SERVICE day.  He told her she could make him clean her room, make her bed, force him to play whatever games he wanted or take her to the park or the store into town…   The other sisters would have really taken advantage of it but Emily’s room is always clean, she never forgets to make her bed and she couldn’t think of anything he really needed to do for her.  They did go on a long bike ride together and spent some quality time together.

Grandma and Grandpa Walton gave her this Willow Tree statue – entitled ‘HAPPINESS’. 

Grandma and Grandpa Johnson gave her sparkly new high tops, a new jacket, an Uno game and a decorating craft activity.

We had spaghetti and homemade alfredo sauce for lunch – Emily’s FAVORITE food.  She picked out and made her lemon birthday cake but since we were stuffed we had her blow out her candles and saved the cake for later.  As soon as we cleaned up a babysitter came over for Megan, Luke and Matt and the big kids went with us out to the Mannheim German theater to see THE HOBBIT and do some shopping on the main street.  It was a fun day!! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EMILY!

Wonderful Walton Christmastime

 

Just a little something my family came up with, while spending the holidays together in Vancouver, Canada.  Are they great or what?  If you look closely you’ll see we made it onto the video via SKYPE!  Wonderful Walton Christmastime… so cute!

Christmas Day

Christmas morning started for me at 7:00 when excited kids burst through our door and leapt onto the bed with a chorus of MERRY CHRISTMAS and GET UP! They urged me out of bed. We brushed hair and teeth, had a sleepy grinning picture on the stairs and headed into the family room to see what Santa brought.

The feeling of anticipation as you run into the family room on Christmas morning is just unbeatable – even for parents!Yep, Santa came.  The kids did alright, that’s for sure.

We took our usual ‘break’ after Santa presents and stockings to make Christmas breakfast. Chris made the potatoes/sausage/cheese/eggs and we set the table, made grape juice and warmed up the cinnamon rolls given to us by a friend. Thanks Danielle! After breakfast and clean up we got right to the business of unwrapping presents…

 

   

We finished opening presents at about 1:00 and Chris and I opted for a nap while the kids happily played Wii. Ours has been broken for half a year or so… so Santa really saved the day with a new one and some fun games. When we got up we had Christmas dinner leftovers and then organized our stuff. Chris is adamant about making CHRISTMAS PILES… so the kids did that and we took a few pictures. Then we skyped with Grandma and Grandpa Johnson who were just getting up and eating breakfast. We chatted for awhile and then opened their presents while we skyped. So fun. We were spoiled like always. Here is everyone wearing/holding their gifts. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!  When we got off the computer with them, we watched BRAVE – the girls were so excited – then played a game of Dominion Dark Ages – Ryan was so excited – and then after all the kids were in bed, Chris and I skyped my family again talking to Mom, Mike, Scott, Dan and others in the room. So grateful for SKYPE! What a great Christmas.