the most wonderful time of the year...

so, another Christmas has come and gone. i hate this time of year, knowing all the decorating, all the celebrating, and that awesome feeling is gone for another 11 months or so. but, i love being able to capture these memories in photos. here are just a few (really!...just a few!) pictures of this Christmas day...

so, after a great dinner made by all of us, but, mostly, by my sister, misty (sorry, no dinner pics. but, i DID get this hilarious one of lucy intently watching jenn & wayne carve the turkey), we opened up our presents...

here is illya holding up a present from my mom and dad where the tag was written in Ukrainian (pretty cool huh?)

"to illya from papa & mama"

here are just SOME of the presents that made the gift mound!

oh, this is pretty cool! my sister really wanted to get her girls the nintendo wii fit, but she couldn't find any at any stores. she told her girls earlier that day, after they opened presents as a family, that she would buy them a wii fit after the holidays as their last present. little did she know that my mom and dad had bought one for her. i don't know who was more excited...my sister, or her two girls!

i've really been wanting resistance bands for awhile now, so i was thrilled to see my parents bought some for me. here is a "before" of me, before i got my bands...

...and here is my "after".

last year, my sister in law, melissa, made my dad a oregon ducks fleece blanket for Christmas. since then, my husband had been drooling over it. so, this year, she made him his very own, done up in one of his favorite sports, soccer.

we all got my parents little things here or there for Christmas (shirts, books, pj's, etc) and they loved everything they got. but, what they didn't know was their REAL gift was books of our family that we made them. an 80 page, professionally printed book of pictures from our childhood, their childhoods, grand kids, in laws, graduations, proms, weddings, camping, traveling...everything made it in there. the best part was, we put pictures that even THEY have never seen before (including ones from when they were kids).

needless to say, they loved it. as my mom said later on,"you won't be able to top this gift."


...yes, we had an awesome Christmas this year!