christmas 2008.

christmas tree.

we buy our tree every year at marina middle school in the marina. probably one of the only big enough parking lots in the city to have a christmas tree lot.

we let rockwell think he was helping decorate, then we put him to bed and the girls decorated the rest of the tree. rock was a little too tempted to throw the ornaments.

christmas eve.
christmas eve i had big ideas for a fancy dinner. i wanted to make it as magical as possible. then emerson helped me realize that magical to little kids might be a little different. so, we made do with snowman pancakes.

it worked out perfectly.

then we sent the kids to dig up costumes for the nativity. rockwell was joseph, julia was mary, and emilia was the angel. emerson was our jack-of-all-trades and played the roll of the sheppard, wise men, inn keeper, donkey, etc. i narrated and filmed...it was priceless.

the cast.

the kids opened their p.j.'s and slippers.

then the kids got ready for santa and left out a cinnamon roll and egg nog.

in our family, we mix equal parts of egg nog to milk.

it's quite a science.

christmas morning.the kids awoke around 8am. i was exhausted christmas eve and had to lay down for a 15 minute power nap while the kids and emer did dinner dishes. being so pregnant during the holidays was a new thing for me so the 8am wake-up call from the children was very welcomed. the kids grabbed their stockings from the hallway and then joined us on our bed to eat breakfast together and open their stocking loot. this is our little family tradition we started last year. after we eat breakfast together on the bed and open stockings we head out to the front room together to open gifts.

santa was here. the girl's show off their santa kiss.
then scarf down their cinnamon rolls.

we didn't grab any more pictures of christmas morning, we opted to video tape it instead. it was so nice to be a little family and celebrate together in our little place. it was sad to think that it would be our last christmas in san francisco. we had a really cool rainstorm as we started opening presents. it was so dark and grey outside and raining so hard that it was coming through our windows. it only lasted maybe ten minutes and then it cleared and the ocean was perfectly calm and beautiful. after present opening and relaxation we drove to grandma and grandpa thomson's in sacramento and celebrated the new year with our family there.