Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!  We've had some great celebration over the last few days.  We've also had some sadness that I'll share later.  

On to the celebration!  We started at Phil's mom's house with the Anderson clan.  Sadly, I did not think to take my camera out so no pictures.  Our next celebration was with the Fast side of the family at Grandma Net's house.  We spent time with all my cousins, aunts, uncles, and all the little kids.  It was a lot of fun to watch all the five of the little boys run around.  Again, no pictures because I forgot.  

Last night, we went to church for our Christmas Eve service and watch our boys sing a few Christmas songs.  It was very cute.  We next went to my mom and dad's house for Christmas.  The first gift I opened was a new camera so yay!  There are pictures!

My sister's gift

Ryan got the Lego Mine, that he has been dying for.  I took the opportunity to snap a picture of his toothless happy grin as soon as he opened it.

Jack was an expert un-wrapper and helped everyone.

My mom for some reason has been wanting a sundial forever, so she was super happy with this gift.

Jack decided to help Aunt Julie.

My Grandmas

After helping Aunt Julie unwrap her gifts, Jack became "Jack in the box."

We haven't celebrated Santa with our family.  Ryan has not been a great pretender.  We also wanted him to learn to think the people that gave him the gifts instead of thanking Santa.  

This year, Jack and Ryan watched the Polar Express and Jack started to say, "I be-weeb, I be-weeb! (I believe)."  Ryan thought it was really cute and wanted Jack to keep believing in Santa.  Jack's preschool has also been really into Santa, sending them home with reindeer food and having a Santa visit the preschool.  I thought it was so cute that Ryan wanted to do this for his brother, that we just went with it.  We sprinkled the reindeer food outside, and hung our Santa key on the front door, since we don't have a chimney.  Here is what Santa left for the boys.  

Next, we opened stockings.  One of my favorite finds for the stockings this year were light up light saber tooth brushes.

I love Jack's face in this picture.

Ryan squealed when he opened these Star Wars Legos.

Jack is also way into Star Wars.  I think he wears the glasses well.

We're really enjoying our day.  

Sadly, we are missing our family in Portland.  

Last week, our sister in law Vanessa started behaving strangely.  She stopped being able to recognize people, became non responsive, and was unable to care for herself or Carolina.  Doug made many trips back and forth to the doctors without really determining what was wrong.  Saturday morning before we left for our Anderson Christmas, Doug's friend Geoff called and informed us that Vanessa was worse and they were back in the ER.  The doctors finally ordered an MRI and discovered that over the course of 3-4 days, Vanessa had had 60-70 mini strokes as a strange complication to her pregnancy (She is around 32 weeks along).  They started her on a course of blood thinners and we waited to see what would happen.  The next day Vanessa was responsive and recognized the people around her.  Yesterday, she was able to write, but she is still unable to speak.  This has been so scary for our family, particularly her husband Doug.  Phil's mom and dad, along with Doug and Vanessa's best friends, Geoff and Shanna, and Vanessa's family have been with them, which we are so thankful for since we cannot be there too.  Please keep them in our family.  We are praying for the safety and health of the baby and a full recovery for Vanessa.

May you have a Merry Christmas with all your family and loved ones today!