Christmas Morning - Santa Came!

We are usually traveling home from my Mom and Dad's Christmas morning, but since we celebrated a week  earlier with the Sohre's we could do Christmas morning at our house. It turned out wonderfully!

It went something like this:

Christmas Eve we left out cookies, milk, and carrots for Santa and Rudolph.

Christmas morning this is what was left.

This is how Christmas morning went:

(I hope I never forget this)

6:40am - everyone is sound to sleep in their beds, it is pitch black outside

6:45am - mine and Marty's bedroom suddenly gets turned on

6:45 and 30 seconds -Marty and I sit up startled and thinking "What the heck is going on??"

6:46am - Gracie yells "SANTA WAS HERE!"

Zach yells "THERE IS PRESENTS UNDER THE TREE"

Gracie "HE ATE THE COOKIES, BUT NOT ALL OF THEM!"

Both kids:  "MOM AND DAD GET UP NOW!!!!"

Marty "I NEED FIVE MORE MINUTES!"

(ya, right Dad, you are really going to get the kids to agree to that one!)

Those little voices were priceless and something to be cherished FOREVER!

For some reason I can't get this pictures to arrange in the order I want, so they are in reverse, which is a little cofusing, but you'll get the idea.

When we were done with the gift opening we feasted on a pan of freshly baked rolls.

It was a good morning.

After the kids opened their presents then it was Marty and I's turn.

I got bubble gum and batteries...

AAhh, don't feel to bad for me... the week earlier I got a gift at my Mom and Dad's that was from both my parents and Marty and the kids... it was a remote car starter for my vehicle.

I will very much enjoy that.

Marty got a new electric razor... top of the line. 

He liked it a lot and now his face is as smooth as Jared's bottom. Ha!

The disaster after the gifts are opened.

Zach with his new tractor and wagon.

Gracie with dollhouse furniture.

The family (Jared was still sleeping at this point)

The two excited kids before tearing into the gifts. 

It was a GREAT morning. 

Malecek Christmas 2011

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day was spent at the Malecek house.

We have some additions for this house this year too.

Marty's brother, Kevin, has a girlfriend this year, Jana.

With her comes her two wonderful kids Makayla and Taylor.

This picture above is Makayla, Rochelle, Zach, and Gracie.

Below we have the adorable Kailani.

I don't think she could get any cutier.

It has been a long time since a family photo was taken of this troop so we managed to get one this year.

We have Lisa, Kevin, Denise, Marty, and Debbie.

Then since there was a little arguing going on earlier in the evening we thought we would capture how everyone really feels about each other.

And below the entire clan with Mom and Dad.

Grandma and Grandpa with the grandkids.

Grandkids again, showing off their presents.

A beautiful ending to Christmas day was this absolutely beautiful sunset.

This picture really doesn't do it justice.

It is a great example to show what the true meaning of Christmas is:

The miracle of Jesus Christ and our salvation within Him.

Thank you Jesus for being born to save us from ourselves!

Sohre Christmas 2011

We did Christmas a little different at the Sohre household this year. 

We did it the weekend before Christmas. You see in my entire 32 years of life we have always done it on Christmas Eve.  It is kinda a thing. We get spiffed up, go to church, then come home and celebrate with good food, good company, and of course gift giving and opening presents. 

This year in order to have the entire family around we did it the weekend before. This allowed Darrin to bring Mandy (his girlfriend of over a year).  All-in-all this worked out great.

We started with a holiday noonish meal of ham and all the fixings. Then some socialization and naps for the youngsters, then a course of snackies and more gathering and then gift exchanging and opening presents. 

It didn't end there though, someone got the idea that the entire family should stay over night. See 4 of the 6 families live in the area, so they certainly could go home (they usually do). Having everyone stay over night allowed us to socialize some more and spend more quality time together and to have Dad make us breakfast in the AM... banana pancakes (they are the best!).

Staying overnight meant 12 adults, 12 kids, and 3 dogs sleeping in a 4 bedroom/3 bath house.

Amazingly it worked and was lots of fun.

As you can see Santa (AKA my Mom) went with a theme this year of giving us all 

"Property of the SOHRE family" t-shirts.

I have to say I kinda like them and we had a blast modeling them.

I think the in-laws did too. They got the treat of fleece PJ pants too.

Jared taking a cat nap in the middle of all the excitement with his new toys.

Me and my Sweetie.

The new addition to our Christmas this year was Mandy. This is Darrin's girlfriend. The tradition is the potential in-law gets a stocking... but kind of a homemade, previously used kind.

When she makes the cut and joins officially then she gets a real stocking that matches everyone else!

Gracie trying out her sleeping bag that she got from Grandma and Grandpa. 

Zach opening his sleeping bag.

Great Grandma and Jared.

My happy little Jared.

Great Grandma and Grandpa come over for a visit too.

It was nice they joined us.

Gracie with her mermaid barbie doll.

Boys:  Joe, Jesse, and Zach.

Some of the grand kids surrounding Grandma waiting patiently for presents!

Gracie and Great Grandma Sohre.

A bunch of the kids.

Some girl cousins: Kate, Paige, Maesee, and Maddy.

And the wonderful lady who runs the show and makes this all possible: 

 My Dear Mother.

Thanks Mom. Love You.

Jared's 1st tooth

My little boy is growing up already.

At about 3 1/2 months old he pops out his first tooth.

It is a bottom front tooth.

There it is!!!

Christmas Tree Hunting

I think we have started a tradition.

Last year we had so much fun cutting our tree at a local Christmas Tree place that we decided we would do it again this year.  Except this year we have no snow, which makes this pics look not as "Christmassy" (is that a word?). 

Anyways we seem to always pick just before sunset to go get our tree so it is getting a little dark.

We have Jared so we don't want to walk around to much, but we did drive around and browse a little.

It didn't take long and we found "the one."

Marty does his 'mannley' duties and starts sawing.

The kids and I watch and say TIMBER at the appropriate time.

We once again have fun.

And then the strong husband of mine carries the freshly cut tree to the truck.

As you notice it is a smaller tree. We like small trees. The last time we got a big tree it fell over on Gracie. That was when she was a baby. 

From then on we vowed we would always just get a small tree.

After the tree hunting we went out to eat at the local Pizza Ranch, then home we went and decorated our tree.  It was just a wonderful Saturday evening. I wish they could all be like that.