Christmas: Part 2

Christmas morning we drove up to Nathan's parents for brunch and more presents! 

Ryker opening his baseball game. 

Mark always likes to stockpile his gifts. 

Debbie loves her Radko ornaments. 

Harper slept through most of the unwrapping. 

Christmas night we gather at Nathan's grandparent's house for dinner and more presents. 

Nathan and cousin Brian

Santa made another appearance this year....

the transformation begins....

Nathan says it's a plus that he still has to use a pillow to fill out his 'bowl full of jelly' as opposed to it being 'natural'...

Practicing his 'Ho, Ho, Ho!'

His entrance into the basement...

We had some mixed reactions from the kids this year...

August wasn't sure what to think...

but he happily accepted his gift from Santa...

Harper was NOT into Santa at all...

Ryker was very shy and wouldn't come near Santa...but went to the door after he was gone to see if he could spot the sleigh and reindeer...

One more to go....

Christmas: Part 1

The Christmas holiday always starts at my parent's house on Christmas Eve. We have dinner, go to church, and come home and unwrap gifts. This tradition began many years ago when we were kids...my parents were tired of us getting up before the sun was up to unwrap presents...and we always did Christmas morning at Gpa and Gma Mangold's house. 

Adam was in charge of carving the ham....

overseeing the ham gravy....

Dad is in charge of filling up the water glasses....note the green grass through the window...this is the first 'brown' Christmas we've had since 2006. 

Dog photo op...Wrigley, Ruby, Rocky, and Romeo

This was a rodeo all in itself trying to get the four of them to somewhat look at the camera at the same time and all stay up on the sofa. 

Enjoying Christmas dessert....

 

Jo opening a sweater for Romeo.

Adam displaying his gift card...

Meg and Teresa

Dad....

Mom...

Nathan and Ruby...

The only person I didn't get a pic of was Gma Jean...she was sitting right next to me so it made it difficult to shoot her....

Wrigley was already tired of Christmas from his photo shoot previously that morning...he was happy to just rest his head on a present...

We are blessed....

Doggone Christmas

I got a new camera for my birthday...and I haven't had a lot of opportunities to use it yet...plus it's a rather large learning curve of trying to take pics completely in the manual setting. I set the dogs up for a Christmas photo shoot. I'm really happy how they turned out and I think I captured each of their personalities well. Ruby was not impressed...she hates wearing anything and was pretty bored during the whole thing. I did get her to 'smile' once by making funny noises behind the camera. Wrigley is such a good little poser....he would occasionally move so that he could come closer and see what I was doing. Most of the time he just looks at me with wonderment and is very good about looking straight into the lens. Enjoy!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!...there is much more to come...I have pics from 3 Christmases left to document.....

Matchy Matchy Merry Christmas

Last week Mom and Gma Jean came up to do some Christmas baking. We had a good time making sour cream sugar cookies....a staple from the Mangold family Christmases. Mom has recently become obsessed with Pinterest and found a fun 'Santa' party mix recipe that she just had to try. We put Gma to work making the Santa hats. 

While Mom mixed up the rest of the party mix...

I was in charge of the cookies....

Rocky was wiped out with all of the 'hard work'...and crashed on the sofa.

To add to all the festivities....we wore matching Christmas shirts (Mom's idea)....

Merry Christmas!!

'Tis The Season

The house is all decked out for Christmas. I had forgotten half of the decorations I had since I didn't really get to decorate last year. I was able to weed some decorations out and have already made one trip to Goodwill. 

We did have a new addition this year to the decor. I bought this little 'Charlie Brown' tree from Pottery Barn two years ago on sale and thought it would be a perfect tree for Nathan's ornaments.

Nathan's Gma Marie used to paint ceramic ornaments every year to give to her grandchildren at Christmas. Nathan's Mom gave all of them to him a few years ago and we incorporated them into our large tree...but they are all so sweet I thought they needed their very own tree. I think there are 19 ornaments total...and I think they fit this tree perfectly. 

Each one is dated on the back and signed by Marie...

One isn't a true Iowan without a Christmas pig ornament...

I think this one looks like me....she must have 'seen' me coming into his life. Ha!

I know Nathan will enjoy this little tree and his Gma Marie's ornaments for many years to come.