Christmas 2010 finally arrives

Each year we enjoy Christmas Eve lunch at "Grammie" Herrlich's house. She is a m0ther figure to Dave and his sisters and each year we celebrate with her. She has 2 grown children of her own, Kathy and Alan, but no grandchildren, thus she really relishes in having the Shea kids over. This year both Kathy, Alan and Kathy's partner Karen joined in the festivities as well. One of the traditions is that Grammie Herrlich buys a Peppermint Pig. Essentially it is a tiny candy pig that is smashed by the kids with a hammer, click on the link to read more about this Victorian tradition.

Playing at Grammie Herrlich's:

After luch we went to the early service at church and then to our friends Carrie and Holly's for dinner. Carrie and Holly have 2 boys, Zeke and David, who are a year younger than Ayla. I forgot my camera in the car so I do not have any pictures from their house but we had a great time.

Christmas Eve Day and Christmas morning finally arrived!!! From previous posts you can see that the month leading up to Xmas has been incredibly busy so we were all ready when it finally arrived. Here are the kids waiting to come down the stairs to see what Santa brought.


Here is what Santa brought:


Some presents:

Kieran and the Wimpy Kid : Ayla and her bow and arrow:



Both kids received BB guns from Santa.....Kieran a brown one and Ayla a pink one.


Ayla loved her gigantic stuffed monkey and big car from Aunt Heather:


Kieran and his swim goggles:


After we finished opening presents at our house we were dressed and off to Aunt Jeanne, Uncle Tim and Linden's house for Christmas day lunch and exchanging gift with the Shea's. Jeanne and Tim prepared a yummie ham, mac and cheese, squash and pies. It was a great few days filled with lots of over eating and good family time. We hope everyone else had a wonderful holiday also!!!

The highlight of gift giving at the Shea's was each kid received a huge tub of dress up clothes from Aunt Louise and Todd, thanks!!!!


The kids each received a BIG Santa present. Fish for Kieran and a Guinea Pig for Ayla