Christmas 2010

Christmas 2010 was fabulous! Becky, Ally and I did not travel anywhere, but both sets of grandparents and Aunt Beth came to visit. Wonderful, such a treat to spend the holiday at our house with our extended family.

Grandma and Poppy stayed at a hotel, and the turkey preparations woke Ally up earlier than usual, so we let her watch TV on my iphone until it was time to get up and go into the living room. She was amazing - waited 90 minutes to open gifts!
Becky with the turkey ready to go in the oven.

The stockings - at our house they hang from the transom window and if they are too big they get placed on the couch!

Ally was very excited to see the presents.

All under the tree.

First we watched Ally open her stockings. There was a stuffed cat - Marie from Aristocats (one of Ally's favorite movies).

The proud moms.

It's a spork!

It was really interesting to watch Ally open her stocking. She first took everything out, laid all the wrapped gifts out on the floor and then opened them one by one.

A new DVD - Beauty and the Beast.

I said she opened her stockings and I meant it - plural - she had 2 to open!

Poppy got a Santa beard in his stocking.

After stockings we opened up the largest gift first.

A beautiful framed antique map of Boston from Debbie, Dave & Beth.

Ally was so careful in unwrapping gifts.

It was so sweet to watch her read the book after opening it up. I made her a photo book from her last year at school as a Purple Fish.

Holding up her new sweatshirt from Great Aunt Martha.

Mommy & Ally.

Its hard to see but Ally is wearing a gift - its a "big kid" necklace from Grandma Debbie & Poppy - it came in a jewelry box. Ally loves it! She keeps asking if she can wear it to school next week, and I have said yes about 20 times! But I am a little worried it will get lost or broken at school, so we'll have a talk about that later in the week.

Aunt Martha & Uncle Phil also sent a beautiful bag and stickers.

My mom and Dad drove over to join us for Christmas lunch. Turns out Grandmas wear matching outfits - they look like bookends on either side of Beth in their red mock turtleneck sweaters and black dress pants!

Everyone gathered at the table for our Christmas meal.

Becky made a wonderful pumpkin cheesecake for dessert.

Before they left, right after lunch I got a picture of Becky, her parents and Ally.

Later in the day we had our second round of gift opening. Here Ally opened up 2 new games she received from her cousins.

Uncle Frank sent several fun gifts from Disney - this is a singing Ariel doll.

All in all it was a wonderful Christmas. Our laptop caught a not so nice Christmas virus so I am a little late in posting these, sorry about that. I had to wait until we did a full scan on our desktop computer to make sure it was not infected as well.

My parents were going to stay for a day or so, but with the impending Dec 27 snow storm they left early on the 26th - we felt bad that they drove here 1 day and back the next - they were not even here for 24 hours, but I am so glad they came. It was great to see them and share Christmas with all of our parents.

Thank-you to everyone for the really thoughtful and generous gifts. We feel truly blesssed.