Christmas Fun....

Top photo: Nasa Janet and Just Pete (of Uncommon Knowledge on WGLT and boredagainchristian.com)

Ben and Chessa, Tyler, Sidney and Katelyn

Aunt Linda (or Linda The Great) and Nana

The Magruders, Ohio Moores, and Lexington Moores

We had a great Christmas with my parents and all of my siblings in one way or another (we got to talk with Jon, Amanda, and Atticus in SE Asia by web-cam). We spent almost 3 days at my parents/Aunt Linda's home outside of Bloomington....9 adults, 5 children, 3 dogs, 1 golf cart, and a mound of Christmas cookies...a few highlights:

Indoor Ice Skating - 45 minutes is just the right amount of time for little kids and old, sore adults



Max, white carpeting, and someone feeding him table scraps - Ben taught us that Windex is actually a superier carpet cleaner...just make sure you use a wet enough cloth to get the blue color out of the carpet....

Talking on a webcam to your family in Indonesia is a little like talking to Astronauts on the space shuttle...In this picture, the grandkids were all trying to yell "Merry Christmas" to J, A, and @....I guess they didn't understand that there wasn't any sound....




Both girls got American Girl dolls from their nana....and Sophia tried hard to listen to Aunt Chessa when she was warned about getting her doll's hair messed up, but we had some tears about hair on the way home.

Uncle Ben pre-loaded a bunch of music on MP3 players for the girls....they LOVED this gift, and it was so nice that they got to immediately listen instead of waiting until their techno-deficient parents got around to reading the instructions (I still don't understand why certain podcasts don't ever make it from my itunes to my ipod). An extra-special treat from Uncle Ben were the Fergi songs included with the Kids Worship and HS Musical songs...can't wait to hear those lyrics coming from the backseat....

Got to see Todd's Dad and his wife on the way back...always great to connect with them!

Christmas Eve candlelight service at First Baptist in Bloomington, the church where I grew up....Dad played the violin, and just like when I was 7, I was mezmorized by the massive pipe organ...taking communion with our girls and the rest of the family...a great night to celebrate Jesus' birth!

We gave my nephew,Tyler, a sweet Nerf gun set complete with guns and target vests for 2 people(still within the relational gift theme, see?!). The excitement of the gift was immediately counteracted by a lecture from my mom about guns in the house and vietnam and towing the line, blah, blah....Thanks, Nana, for insulting my gift choice and crushing my spirit....now I think you should say 3 nice things...


It was a great Christmas, and the gifts have very little to do with it! I feel so fortunate to actually ENJOY spending time with our family!! Mom and Dad, I think you've done a pretty great job with all of us (despite the whole nerf gun thing....)!!