Christmas wrap up, part one

Happy New Year! Hope you got everything you wished for in 2009 and are expecting great things to come in the year ahead.

We had a great time playing hooky from school and work for the last couple of weeks in December to go visit our families, both near and far, for Christmas.

First up was my family in Nashville.

Aunt Jess came all the way from San Francisco for these hugs!

We decided Ben should take in the merriment of the season at Opryland Hotel. Personally, I thought that the decor didn't quite live up to my childhood memories, but that must just be part of the wonder of being a kid at Christmas...

and a train ride with Grandma doesn't hurt either!

Family shot at the "sissis tee"
(doesn't Tyler look handsome? And yes, I'm aware that I'm wearing the same shirt in basically all of my in-front-of-tree pictures this year. I really like that shirt.)

By the end, Ben had had it with all the sissis-tee pics, but still posed dutifully
and at the life-sized nativity too.(what? no smile for "Babee Jeez"? Sheesh.)

Ben kicked off Christmas Eve baking cookies with Grandma.

(He is an excellent assistant.)

Sampling a little of the finished product

The Harley Davidson water bottle in the corner reminds me that I don't have any pictures of Dad to post! He was there though, snack-eating and movie-watching with the rest of us!

And once Ben was nestled all snug in his bed,
Santa came!

He was pretty happy about it. :)

One of the many "Zoe - move!" moments that we happened to catch throughout the morning, and I had to include.

I mean, how about that tongue swinging in mid air?! Classic.

Ben was a very good present deliverer - unless you actually wanted them to be handed to the person whose name was on the package...

And he was a very good present opener too!
Meeting Elmo in person/muppet!

Trying out his brand-new tricyle...
before packing up and heading to Canada on Christmas afternoon. More to come on those adventures, eh!