Have yourself a WIRED little Christmas

Getting ready, looking sharp!

"See Nanna, that's the baby Jesus."

With Nanna and II at church

Family!

II is so proud of his little oyster eater.

It doesn't matter how many crackers I drown in the oyster stew... I don't like it!

"HELP!!!!!!!!!"

Brock is cute, even without the hat!

Rock-a-bye babies...

Daddy trying to burn off a few extra calories after dinner.

Reading the Christmas story. Luke kept trying to turn the pages to look for pictures.

After a several year hiatus, the tradition of singing for your presents has been resurrected.

Performing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Grandpa D would be so proud.

Luke was infatuated with Brock's vintage clock!

A new monkey bed for Luke!

Vaughn will have to wrestle his new goggles away from Aunt Beth.

Christmas Eve is traditionally the "celebration" day at the Danielsons'. We eagerly awaited the arrival of Auntie Beth, Uncle Tony, Vaughn and baby Brock. Unfortunately, they got a late start out of the Cities, so we were content going to church without them and anticipated seeing them when we arrived home.

After the normal "rush to get ready", we arrived for the 3:00 pm service at 2:40, plenty of time to get a good seat. We wondered if the rest of the congregation was rushing around in more of a tizzy than we were, because they hadn't yet arrived... a couple minutes later, Nanna and II arrived to confirm our sneaking suspicion... the service really began at 3:30. In the end, it was a blessing in disguise. Luke was able to run around for 30 minutes and burn off some of his extra energy. And, under the watchful eye of God, he was able to have a fairly uneventful and painless bowel movement in the church bathroom. Yeah God!

We drove home and celebrated Vaughn and the family's arrival. The playing began immediately. For Luke, it didn't stop. Not even for dinner. He did stop long enough to eat a couple spoonfuls of oyster stew... something not even Mommy and Daddy could stomach. When it came time for our meal, however, he was incapable of sitting down and chose to run laps through the kitchen and living room rather than join us for prime rib. At one point, he even screamed for us to rescue him from underneath the sofa. One might think it demonstrates bad parenting to allow our child to run around during a nice family meal (myself included). Sometimes there are forces at work greater than my own resolve... Christmas Eve was one of those nights. II belly laughed to the point of tears and when he came up for air, he reminded me of how much Luke was behaving just like his Mommy when she was younger. It must be rewarding for them to watch me go through what they went through 36 years ago. It also explains why I spent many nice family meals in my bedroom.

Presents came next. Luke loved opening packages and it seemed to be a good outlet for his abounding energy. He and Vaughn were so much fun to watch. It renewed the Christmas spirit in all of us.