Holy smokes. Do... Do you know what this is? This is... A lamp!

It's hard to distill almost an entire week of rollicking fun into a single post. I shall do my best to portray in words and photos what a wonderful Christmas was had by the Vos Family.

We kicked off our Christmas celebrating at the ward Christmas party on Tuesday night. Calvin was supposed to be a wise man in the ward's nativity play. Our family found it quite hilarious to see him up there in one of my old lingerie robes and a Harry Potter cloak turned inside out. He looked pretty good, tho, compared to the Ninja wise man on his right. Calvin could not keep a straight face the entire time he was on stage which lent itself to such an (un)spiritual nativity. I couldn't stop laughing either. In defense of Calvin, he said the boy on his left kept whispering things to make him laugh. It worked. The kids, with the exception of Cameron and Emily, sat on Santa's lap and whispered a few things they were hoping to get in his ear.



On Wednesday, we loaded up in the van and headed to Toledo for our usual trip to Ideal Hot Dog for chili-mac. As usual, Ideal Hot Dog and the chili-mac did not disappoint in making our mouths and bellies very happy. Our noses didn't enjoy the smells that came later...for more on this ask Chris about the world's worst smelling flatulence presented by someone you might not guess.

Someone painted our Toledo house a strange teal color.

.
We also stopped at Wixey's Bakery, the very best bakery in all the world and purchased some of the most delicious cream puffs. Cameron especially enjoyed his.

When we arrived home, we prepared to open presents and the kids had fun seeing what they received from Anna and Tony and Lucy as well as from Mom and Dad and each other. Lucy seemed to like her Noah's Ark playset. Emily was excited about her "My Secret World" DS game. Christopher and Spencer each got a new DS and Calvin was thrilled with his "Spore" game. Cameron loved his Little Einsteins toys. I loved the bag that Anna made for my by hand. It is beautiful!! Chris got me the expansion to WOW which I cannot wait to play!





After presents, we ate our Christmas snacks. Most of the snacks we had were new to our rotation. We had two really good different kinds of wraps, some yummy chili puffs, an interesting new mexican dip and some great mushroom cups.


Anna and Tony left around 10 and then we watched "Mr. Krueger's Christmas." It was fun watching it all together and I never get tired of it even though I've seen it a million and one times. Mr. Krueger always gets to me talking to Baby Jesus. I really love that scene.

Christmas morning started early for Cameron who got up around 5am, played with the toys set out by Santa and ate most of everyone's candy out of their stockings. He knows how to do things! The rest of the children joined Cam around 8:30 and were so excited to see that Santa (Grammy) left them a Wii under their tree this year. Their reactions were priceless.




We started bowling as soon as we got it hooked up and then played baseball and we are all on our way to being guitar heroes. There is nothing funnier than Mom rocking out to "Living On A Prayer" while all the kids, even the 5 year old, join in singing. We came up with a funny version, "Living on a Prairie." This version includes the lyrics, "Pushing my handcart, I'll make it I swear, OHH OHH Living on a Prairie." Hilarious!

After the sports matches, we headed to Grammy's for traditional egg bake and coffee cake. It was yum as usual. The kids had a wonderful time playing with cousins, Tyler and Morgan. Mom had a great time playing Seinfeld Scene It. I seriously need that game. Chris and I were such a good team that I had to throw some of the questions to give the other teams a chance. We use Seinfeld quotes in our daily conversation. No one stands a chance against us.





Christmas night we came home and played some more baseball and bowling and listened to some more guitar classics. It was super fun!

The next day we spent putting away our new toys and playing. Christopher got Risk from Santa and Chris and I were loathe to discover that 2008 Risk is not the same as 1980 Risk. It was very disappointing. At one point, Chris was refusing to play this new, impostor Risk. We convinced him, however, and we had a really fun game. It was hard for me to take over countries owned by my cute little boys and hear their pleas of, "No, Mom, not Western Australia." It was torture for me. I love games especially Risk, Axis and Allies and Monopoly. Growing up, I didn't have many people to play with me, so I would play with myself. I would have a Monopoly game going with myself and my "friends" for days. No one's feelings were ever hurt. Playing with real people is different for me. (Yes, I am quite the nerd.) Chris and I dominated the game and picked off the boys and then he took me out. It was super fun. We were so upset about the new Risk that we took a little trip over to his Mom's toy room to see if his original Risk game was there. Thankfully, it was and has found a new home in our game closet.


We had so much fun that Christopher and Lizzie were completely tuckered out

The best part of the Christmas celebrating this year was being with my family and having fun with so many people that I love so much. I am so thankful for all of the blessings that I have received this year and the number one blessing in my life is my family. I hope everyone had as nice a holiday as we did.