Christmas Day at Gramma and Granpa's

Christmas 2008 has come and gone. All our Minnesota kids and grand kids came over for presents and dinner. We missed Kyle, Tiffany , Ellie and Erik, as they are living in California. This is our tree and the before picture. Notice how neat and tidy everything is.Here is part of the clan, waiting to start ripping paper.
Here is another part of the clan, patiently waiting.
Logan got an Optimus Prime transformer and Batmobile shake-and-go cars that he enjoying.
However, Liam wanted to play with some of animal transformer cars.
Some of the controlled chaos
Princess Gigi is showing off the Princess Cinderella doll that she got. We have some lovely princesses in our family.
Lorelei was busy grooming her new addition to the family. Her hair was very smooth and easy to brush.
Joseph brought over two of his marionettes that he got and showed us how to operate them.
Here Tana and the girls are playing with some fairies that belong in the cloth fairy house that Tana made.
Andrew and Brandon watching the commotion.
This is the after picture, well actually only part of the mess.
All in all the dinner was good, everyone enjoyed each other's company and everyone enjoyed opening their presents. Until Next December.

Christmas Eve at the Smenteks

It has tradition for a few years to meet at Kirstin and Jeff's house for Christmas Eve. The Dude's
were as excited as ever to see all the visitors. One of the gifts the boys got was a Fisher Price nativity set, which Liam is playing with. I hound about 12 rolls of film in the house and decided to use some of it up on Christmas. So these pictures are not as vivid and digital because I had to scan them first. Both Logan and Liam wanted to rearrange the nativity. For the most part they cooperated with each other.
Logan got some new Batman PJ's which he showed off.
And you can see the excitement on Liam's face with the arrival of his new PJ's.
Both of the boys had matching three in one cribs (the one Logan is in I made). Well, they have learned to climb out and have been doing that whenever they felt like it. So it was decided to convert them into the youth bed. Logan showed us how he climbs in at night.
The Dudes were excited to have Gramma Larsen read a story about "Aliens Love Underpants". They stayed for the whole book.
Liam wanted to spend much of the gathering time in the laundry basket. He kept piling up the toys in the basket, to the point that he did not have much room.
Just Logan.
Kirstin and Logan. He is in a stage where he wants to wear bibs. Here he has his Santa bib on.
And Kirstin and Liam (you can see that he loves his mom).

Andrew, the Master Trumpet Player

Those of you who have not witnessed it, you are mission out. Last Thursday we drove up to Big Lake to attend the Christmas concert to hear Andrew. He is in the jazz band at school and he is a mighty fine trumpet player and he has only been playing a couple years. He played in the jazz band and the concert band that night. Th jazz band is featured below.
Andrew also had a solo part.
This was a really good concert. Despite their young age, almost everyone was on key and in sync.
Keep up the good work Andrew and Practice, Practice and Practice. You will not regret it later in life.