Christmas Morning

Looks like the kids were good enough... Santa's been here!

And the Stockings were hung...

Ryan with his present from Emma... a travel art desk.

Another family favorite...

Emma loves her MP3 Player! She is our music lover, like her daddy.

Ryan's ready for Basketball season!

Daddy opening his present that was hand picked by Ryan (I love the school's Santa Workshop) - a picture frame with date and time. Perfect for Daddy's desk at work!

I am Optimus Prime!

Santa also made a special delivery in our basement... an art/drawing table for the kids to share. It's a bit larger than Santa figured it to be, I'm sure.

In the late morning, we had Grandpop, Jane and Derek, along with the boys (brothers & families) over to continue the celebration. Usually we all head to their house in NJ but everyone was good enough to come to our house this year so that the kids could just hang out and play with their toys instead of being whisked away after opening them. It was a bit crazy with trying to pick up from presents and get breakfast ready so I didn't get many pictures but here's one of Emma all dressed up with Daddy. I think Ryan was half in his PJ's, playing outside! And although there are no pictures to show it, Santa was very good to me this year, and among other cool things, surprised me with a laptop and wireless router. Now I can blog from any place in the house!!!

Christmas Day

We went to Mom-Mom & Pop-Pop's house for our traditional Christmas Day festivities. It's always a fun and crazy time and it's great seeing everyone. We were happy that the Michigan Kontuly's made it, with the exception of Anthony who had to work - we missed you! It was great to finally meet Baby Ava and have the cousins all together. Ava and Natalie celebrated their First Christmas, along with Mattie who was with the Puntel/Gillespie Clan out in LA - we missed you guys too! As usual, the kids were very spoiled by all of the presents - thank you everyone!

In all the craziness of the morning, I didn't get any pictures of the kids together and dressed up, so here's the best I could do. They were pretty much pictured out by this point!

Emma quickly surveyed the scene and researched the present piles and announced that the pink trunk was hers. When asked how she knew, she replied that her daddy told her. She pointed to her name and said 'See, it says Emma Grace Newby. It's mine. Not Natalie's.' I sense a little bit of girl jealousy.

Emma and her Uncle Mike.

Emma and her cousins, Anthony, Theresa and David.

Baby Ava had lots of presents to open too! Aunt Ginger was a good helper.

Pam & Natalie with Cousins Joe and Ava. Natalie and Ava were born a day apart last February.

The next generation of cousins... Natalie, Ryan, Ava and Emma.

Christmas Eve, Part I - The Party

Christmas Eve started out a bit Rocky this year. As we were getting ready for Church and I was curling Emma's hair, I mistakenly burned her ear with the iron and then never saw her reach up and grab the barrel to pull it away. Sadly, that resulted in 2nd degree burns on her little ear and hand. But thankfully Aunt Janet & Uncle Adam to the rescue - they picked up Emma (Daddy and Ryan had gone off to the kids Christmas Mass, we were sad to miss it) and took her to Janet's Mom's house where she received excellent care. By the time I got there Emma was her normal chit-chatty self and feeling much better. Mrs. Callan even gave her doll, Jennifer Newby, a matching bandage. Thank you so very much!

From there we were on to Grandmom and Pop's for their Christmas Eve party. We love this holiday tradition... it's so fun to get together with everyone the night before and see how excited the kids are. Each year the family grows so it's always a First Christmas for someone, it seems! This year Pop had to work but we sure missed him!

Here's Emma showing off her cool bandage... poor baby, bad mama!

Cousins Ryan, Emma and Tyler... his First Christmas!

Aunt Jen and Tyler Clause!

Halfway through the party, the kids got a special surprise visitor! How nice of Santa to take time from his busy schedule that night to stop by and visit with us.

Emma and her cousin, Andrew. That's how she refers to him... 'My Cousin Andrew!'

Baby Tyler in the jumper... he's just waiting to open presents!

Christmas Eve, Part II - PRESENTS!

After the celebration and people have left, the kids get to open their first gift of the night, their Christmas PJ's (and slippers this year). Then the madness begins as we all sit around and open presents. It's alot of fun and the kids really get spoiled by their Grandparents and Aunts & Uncles. The only thing missing this year was Pop!

Went in a different direction with the PJ's this year but they still had the candy-cane stripes, right?

This was a family favorite... Nerf Dart Tag from Grandmom and Pop. Daddy got a little carried away. Those darts may be Nerf but they still hurt at point blank range! I won't name names BYRON as to who may have been a little trigger happy. Ouch!

December Recap

It's been a crazy and hectic month, as I'm sure most of you will agree with. We had lots going on and places to go, people to see. On the 15th we got together at Aunt Janet's mom's house (Hi Mrs. Callan!) to bake Christmas Cookies and had lots of fun - thank you! Emma was a good cookie baker but Ryan was home playing (shhh, he thought we were doing 'errands'). Then the next day we celebrated Daddy's birthday. If you ask Emma, she says he is 24. In Daddy's Dreams! We also saw Santa ride through the neighborhood on a Fire Truck... lot's of excitement and thankfully all before the tow truck showed up to haul my Explorer away. Whose transmission dies 2 weeks before Christmas? Yours Truly. 'Merry Christmas Kids... Santa brought you a new tranny!' Just enough stress to put me teetering on the brink, but not enough to push me all the way over. Good times.

The Christmas Show

Last weekend, Ryan had his school Christmas Show. The entire school opened the show with God Bless America - so cute! Then each classroom sang their individual songs. Ry's class, the oldest, was last and they did a great job. Ryan was a camel and from the looks of things, we kept him up a bit too late the night before because he yawned more than he sang. But he did a great job and tried his best. For the conclusion, the whole school got back on the altar and sang as a group to end the show. This is the part I somehow missed (filming from the middle of the Church)... Emma hands Byron her sippy cup and candy and says "Hold this Daddy, I'll be right back." Then she marches up onto the alter, places herself in line and starts singing and copying what the other kids are doing. Clearly it did not matter if she was part of the show or not - she wanted to be and that's all there was to it! There are many ways of describing Emma... shy is not one of them.

In case you're wondering, we like our tree's leaning to the ground!! Check out the handsome kid in front!

Emma tried her best to be inconspicuous... she didn't want to draw attention to herself.

Ryan is the 'Camel'... kid in yellow on the end!

Emma looks like she knows she shouldn't be there but just doesn't care. You can almost hear the 'Ha, Ha!'

And here she is following right along... Ryan the Camel in the background. Poor kid.

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Later that day Pam, Jeff and Natalie came down and we celebrated Ryan's birthday (AGAIN). Byron cooked a yummy dinner and we all hung out and relaxed a bit. Mom-Mom & Pop-Pop brought the kids special bears that read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' and Emma really loves it!

This boy is serious about his cake!

Even Baby Natalie is fascinated by the story-telling bear.

Ryan's cool Pirate Sweater. He got so many great gifts - thank you everyone!

Say Cheese!!!

Or say peanut butter or sassafras or stinkbug. Say jeepers or creepers or Poop Deck Pappy! Say anything just SMILE while you are doing it please!!! Why, oh why is it nearly impossible to get a good picture of 2 children at the same time? Why do they squint their eyes and look up at the ceiling - the camera is not up there!!! Here's a few samples of our Christmas Card photo sessions 1 & 2. Not all are bad - some are cute but not what I was hoping for. Cards are going out this weekend and this year there are 2 versions... have you been naughty or nice???

Not bad, but hard to tell Ryan has eyes in this one! But it is one of his best smiles.
Cute but not the look I was going for.

Note to self... invest in Photoshop before next Christmas rolls around.

Sometimes ya gotta just give in and accept defeat!

MIC...KEY...

...M.O.U.S.E. And this ain't Disney, folks!

Seems the little fella got into the trash can (where I forgot to replace the bag) and can't get out. Good thing there's plenty of goldfish down there to keep him fat and happy until 2008. Must remember to thank child/ren for trapping rodent in a humane way... I usually prefer to snap their little necks in a trap. Guess Mickey will be joining us on the ride to get Ryan from school... I know a little field where I can drop him off. I'm putting a cat on my Christmas list this year.