Christmas in Vermont

'Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house, not a creature was stirring--not even a mouse....well, except for Willy screaming bloody murder in his crib because, apparently, he was "choosing not to sleep".

Opening the Christmas eve present (pre-screaming in his bed)

And guess what everyone got for their Christmas eve presents? That's right: jammies. Here we all are (including our adopted daughter, Beth, who had to be in the picture. Isn't she a doll?)
Will and Beth Christmas eve:
And Santa Claus DEFINITELY came to town, bringing Will this nice push toy, Sam some soft blocks that Will secretly liked more than his own present (he kept grabbing them from Sam) and Beth an American Girl doll named Samantha whom she adored. However, she did NOT want Will to touch the doll (understandably--he's a bit of a brute), but every time they rode in the car together she would dangle the doll right next to Will, tempting him to just grab hold of the doll's hair and pull, pull, pull and, of course, he would. And, of course, Beth would shriek, "Will's pulling Samantha's hair!" I would then calmly tell her to move Samantha out of Will's reach and then Will could not reach Samantha's hair. Ah, crisis averted.
All the stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there. Well, we forgot to hang our stockings, Josh had no stocking (hence the hockey sock in the background of the below picture) but, alas, St. Nicholas found us anyway. And what did Will get in his stocking? You guessed it: a ball! (Notice Sam's block sitting next to him--he didn't want to let those things go. I guess I know what he'll be getting for his birthday).

Here's a photo of all three kids opening presents at 3:00 p.m. That's right--we had to wait for Nate to get home from work to open the rest of the presents, so Christmas lasted ALL day.

What child is this or should we say whose child is this???? And why can we not take a decent photograph of this child? Here are our attempts at some Christmas day photos of our little guy:

Our Christmas family photo. And though we were not home for Christmas, we will always cherish our Vermont Christmases (and Vermont is practically like our second home anyway, right?)

Hark! the Herald Angels sang...or was it Hark! the tired babies screamed? This is what happened when we tried to get a picture of all three children. I HAD to post the progression of these photos:

Phase 1: Will crying, Sam dazed by the camera, Beth in "baby family" heaven.

Phase 2: Will dazed by Amy, Sam crying, Beth still in Baby heaven.

Phase 3: Will's done, Sam's done, Beth's thinking, "Where did all my babies go?"

Thanks to Nate, Amy, Sam and Beth for such a GOODLY Christmas vacation. We loved the good food, good shows, and of course, the good company. There are moments we will treasure in our hearts forever (especially the time when Amy was feeling quite hot in the backseat of the Volvo and the many times Nate traipsed around the house in his union suit with a "warming flap". Lucky us, we saw more of Nate and Amy than we had ever wanted to). Now, we're off to more adventures for the New Year. Stay tuned....