Pretzels and Punch

Celebrating New Year's Eve with homemade pretzels and punch while watching Swiss Family Robinson (and some funny Top Gear reruns).

Happy New Year!

A Night At The Museum

We went to the Caravaggio show at the Kimbell in Fort Worth last night.

The show is closing on the 8th (and it was half price ticket night) so it was pretty busy. We had to park on the edge of the lot, but found this amazing tree on our walk to the entrance.

Kassidy in tow. 

We don't this very often anymore, but the stroller might have been too bulky with the crowds. I'm sure that Kassidy didn't mind.

No pictures inside the gallery, but I shot this one at the entrance. There were good sized crowds, but it wasn't mobbed or anything.

The half price tickets start at 5 PM om Fridays, so by the time that we got through the gallery the kids were starting to get tired and hungry.

All in all, it was a really great show. 

Smaller than I imagined it would be, but definitely more Caravaggio s than I have ever seen in one location. It was interesting seeing his work next to all of his followers paintings, who were certainly accomplished but lacked that incredible light and movement that was evident in most of Caravaggio's work.

The little kids got tired and cranky at some points, and we had one close toy projectile call when Lennon launched his Bear lovey. But all in all the kids had fun, and we were able to engage them in the stories that these amazing paintings told. 

And seeing his "John the Baptist" painting in person was worth the price of admission for me.

Christmas Day

Here are a few random pictures from Christmas. 

The kids ended up waking me up around 7:30. I think the first ones came downstairs around 5 AM (as in, that's when they woke Iria up). Last year Lennon woke up at 2 AM...

It ended up taking around an hour to go through all of the gifts, and we haven't even peaked yet (Kassidy still gets a little less).

Afterwards, Iria made a great dinner that included ham, spaetzla (German pasta), asparagus, green beans and rolls.

Birthday cupcakes for Jesus capped everything off.

A great day!

Here they are doing their Christmas dance, minutes before we started opening the stockings. Do they look excited enough?

The stockings were filled to the brim. I'll be sweeping up those toys for many nights to come.

Lukas got this castle from the grandparents. Both the boys are playing with it as I type. 

Lennon's new Batcave has been really popular as well. It's buried on the bottom of Lennon's stack of other irregular shaped toys (which must have been a real nuisance for Santa's elves to wrap).

Loved Kassidy's Christmas tights.

Katharine got a new American Girl doll from her grandparents...

Along with two zhu zhu pets, an outfit for her new doll, some Harry Potter books, a Harry Potter DVD, a Harry Potter Lego set (Hagrid's hut, which she built in an hour), a Barbie doll, an animal research book, more Calico Critters and more Squinkies.

Whew!

Here is Keira opening her Anglina Ballerina dollhouse.

And more Angelina Ballerina accessories.

Lukas was very careful when unwrapping and sorting his presents. They were all lined up in a neat row next to his bench.

Kassidy got a play phone, which will hopefully be a good substitute for Iria's iPhone.

Here is everybody post-present opening.

Present assembly started shortly afterwards. It was a pretty easy year along that front.

One of Keira's favorite gifts was a box of play-dough. 

She LOVES play-dough.

The boys love video games. Go figure...

Iria's Christmas fashion.

Katharine loves tea- iced or hot.

And finally, Jesus got cupcakes for his birthday this year instead of cake. 

I'm sure he won't mind (they were good cupcakes).

Not a creature was stirring...

Santa drop-off confirmed..

Gifts from relatives and friends sorted...

Now we're finally going to get some sleep, and in a few hours the "Lets try to drag Daddy out of bed" games will commence.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Church and Indian Food - another annual ritual.

We were able to get a decent family portrait tonight. 

Iria requested that I Photoshop the band-aid off of Keira's face. She usually teases me about all of the photo touch-ups that I do, but made an exception for tonight.

Speaking of that band-aid...

Back at church, we sat in for the children's service. 

The older kids performed a nativity scene, but Kassidy was stealing much of the show.

As they perform the nativity, kids bring ornaments up that relate to whatever part of the story that they are telling.

Random picture #1: Katharine's friend, Kaylee (I couldn't pass up that photo)

Random picture #2: Keira's shoes (she was quite proud of them)

After service we snapped some Christmas portraits.

After that we went off to dinner.

The street was lit up, and we would have been having a white Christmas this year if it were around 10 degrees cooler...

The kids are now asleep, and Iria is due back from the late service in about an hour. It's going to be a busy night, but I'm going to relax and read a book in the meantime.

Merry Christmas!