We wish you a Merry Christmas!

Well, it's9 am, and we are done with presents. We did all we could to prolong the ceremonies, ('you have to wait until 7 before you can get up', eat breakfast before opening presents, opened presents one at a time-one person at at time, etc.)-- but that is as far as we made it. Everyone seems to be quite satisfied. The girls love all of their presents. The boys groaned at the sunday shirts and ties but the legos made up for it. The hand puppets from G&G Ravsten were a big hit. We are excited to put on a puppet show and put it on the blog. Corey has especially liked his dinosaur one. He has been quite a shark purist for a long time now, but with the way he marches around with that dinosaur knocking down the lincoln log towers the girls build, I think he may convert back to the Jurassic World. (The lincoln logs were Coreys present but when he opened them he almost had a fit because he did't like them. Corey is honest--he will not play along).
The full capacity for fun with the marshmellow guns from G&G Wendel is still being reached. We couldn't figure out why the boys got a bunch of dried up marshmellows for a present! This bewildered us--we thought Grandpa & Grandma's mental Christmas tree was missing a few too many lights--if you know what I mean. Then they opened the guns--and it all came together. We've already figured out how to shoot with rapid fire. When we opened those, the unwrapping came to a halt. After a while the girls moaned and asked if we could get back to the rest of the presents. I want everyone to know that I'm really excited at the prospect of finding marshmellows all over the house for the next--who knows how long---it will be a pleasure.
The cuckoo clock is awesome! We love it and it's already hanging in the kitchen. For my families benefit--Jason's parents went to Germany earlier this year and bought us a real German cuckoo clock. If's really fun. We love it.
Ryan and Mindy--thanks for the games. We are trying to build up our game collection. We didn't have Cadoo yet. We are still building up patience and skill for games--we need constant practice, but, by dang, these kids will learn to enjoy a family activity that is not T.V.!! Sit down, pay attention, wait your turn, quit arguing, be a good sport, it doesn't matter who wins or loses, count 7 squares, you don't have enough money, what goes around comes around, and
'that's enough-lets go watch TV before we strangle each other'--these are all life lessons we learn from playing games!! Thank you!!
And to Mom and Dad Ravsten, Jen, Brian, Lindsay, Annie, Jo, Gabe, Melissa, and Jeff--thank you for the present you helped Jason with. That was really nice. I owe you all. I love you all.
We wish you a Merry Christmas!
We wish you a Merry Christmas!
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! We are ready....except for the presents part. But who needs presents?

We are only one of two houses on the street with Christmas lights on. I love Christmas lights!! They are very cheery. Our little house has no outdoor light outlets. So the cords are running through the kitchen window. We stuffed a whole bunch of plastic bags in the gap. We may look 'trashy' but we have spirit!

Fall Colors

I took another shot at getting some good fall colors. I put a ton of pictures on this week! Check the blog archive to see them all.

This next one looks just like ink blown with a straw. Remember doing those?

Jackson took this picture. He told us how to pose.

We had to let them cut loose after awhile. I'm sure there's someone that didn't appreciate us messing up the leaf pile.

Thanksgiving Day

Pies...

homemade stuffing...

Ham and turkey!! Yum!! Then we went to take pictures..

No lightsabers until all the pictures are done!

We love all of you!! We hope you all had a good Thanksgiving!!

New York, New York

Famous chocolate shop.....yum.

Times Square....

Interesting people. Ladies with pink hair... Naked, singing cowboys...

..and this sort. This gentleman was very classy. He had a blood-red, double-breasted suit, a black shirt, red tie, lots of gold jewelry and a fancy cane. I wish I had asked him to pose. What line of work do you suppose he is in???? Hmm.

Grand Central Station

Subway