Christmas Eve

When you're young you want to be home for Christmas. And as you get older and have children of your own, you want all the children to be home for Christmas. But as your children marry it suddenly isn't always feasible to have the children home for Christmas. The in-laws' traditions count as much as yours and it just may be more favorable to visit them. They might have better weather, more things to see and do, or just more family in the area to visit.

In any case, this year we are going to enjoy our 5th child and his family while at the same time we won't have our oldest child and his family. Ed and family left yesterday to spend the holidays with Grandpa and Grandma Miles.

Tiffany thought it would be less stress on her nerves if the boys weren't always asking, "When are we going to Grandma's?" so she told them several weeks ago that they wouldn't be going south this Christmas. Then 2 days ago we had a little "mini-Christmas". One of the first "gifts" the boys opened was the above pictured ticket. It was Tiff's way of announcing the trip. Since the boys already knew (they were being told to pack) they couldn't understand why they needed a ticket. Oh well, it was a cute idea anyway.

Carolyn and I got to see the boys expressions when they opened our gifts to them.


We gave the two older boys the same thing, a Crayola Dry Erase Activity Center.


While Camdan still enjoys playing with the wrapping material.



We knew our present was a big hit whem the boys started using them immediately.

And just a couple of hours before Ed and family headed south, Philip arrived with his wife and year-and-a-half old Gavin who immediately tried to steal our hearts.


He is growing so fast. He talks a mile a minute but no one can understand him. We really feel fortunate that Philip and family could make it up here for Christmas.