Christmas in Yakima

Merry Christmas!

This Christmas our little family was blessed with the opportunity of spending time with both our Yakima family and our California family. First comes the photos from our visit with Caleb's family on the east side of the mountains. We were with them the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday before Christmas.

On Saturday the kids spent the afternoon at one of the happiest places on earth- PaSam and Granny's. While Wyatt and PaSam built a unique snowman...


...Granny just held and rocked Jubilee, which is her God-given right to do as much as she wants as a great-grandma.

Later that evening we went to Great-Grandma Rosetta's for a family party. Sadly, Rosetta's health has deteriorated and she had spent that weekend in the hospital. We dearly missed her.

Every time Wyatt opened a present that evening, he exclaimed, "Hey! It's a white box!" as if that were a gift in itself. You'll notice in the second photo here that Wyatt appears as a blur, which is a true representation of the way he looked as he opened presents over the next several days. Also in the second photo, to the right on the ground, is Liz's prized red Kitchen Aid toaster. Yes, that is really what Liz wanted for Christmas...a RED toaster. Yes, it makes her feel middle-aged to ask for a kitchen appliance for her big gift, but hey, she really wanted one.


Since we were going to be with the Buerers on Christmas day, we treated Christmas Eve as such with the Reeds, opening our stockings. Here's Wyatt (next to Meemaw's HUGE Christmas tree) anxiously awaiting the event. Note: if there is one thing to count on for Christmas, it's that Caleb's Mom will really take her Christmas tree seriously , and will find the biggest, most gorgeous, most back-breaking tree to fit in her high living room.

Wyatt's cousin Reilly joined us. Here she is looking like an angel in her too-cute dress...


...and here's our angel Jubilee, whom Granny could not keep her hands off of once again.


I especially like the way Reilly's feminine dress contrasts the huge plastic double-barreled shot gun that she is ogling. She was learning, along with Wyatt, how to properly use it I guess, one of two pretend firearms that Wyatt received , the other being a prized Davy Crockett "Old Betsy" rifle.
Liz thought Caleb deserved a "major award"- the replica leg lamp from "A Christmas Story" movie.

And finally, try as she might, Liz could not get a good picture of Jubilee in her Christmas clothes...
...though she did get this one from Wyatt through candy-bribery.

Shortly after, Liz's family arrived to caravan with us up to a cabin near Cle Elum. Tales of more adventures to come!