christmas part 1: gapp fam.

a quick recap on the family parties we attended for christmas:

the gapp family party was great as usual.

here are the kiddos opening the gifts they got from my brother chris and his family. kaleb and lyla each got quiet books which looked like they took my sis-in-law erin forever to put together. when kaleb saw his he said, "this is just what i wanted!!" and since kaleb was so excited about it lyla gave a resounding, "whoa!" but really she was thinking, what am i supposed to do with this thing? (she has since figured that out!!) g.rant got a little set of stacking toys. the kids were happy with their new stuff!

kids' gifts from the grandparents gapp:

kaleb opening his bug blast game. once he saw what it was he said, "this is just what i wanted!!" it was basically a theme for him all night!

lyla loves her little jewelry box that was full of fun jewelry.

and as you can see, grant loved his cute lion-y thingy.

best part of the night...lyla just wanted to be part of the action so when my brother dave and his fam went up to open their family gift lyla decided to join them...and she wouldn't budge.

my poor mom lost her camera this summer at our family reunion...she has been really sad about it since then and i think she secretly hoped we would pick up on that and take pity on her and get her a new one for christmas...which we all pitched in and did. i wrapped it up in about six huge boxes : one inside of the other. here she is about half way through opening all the boxes.

and then when she got to it...she cried. she said, "do you trust me not to lose this one?" and we replied and said, "no. which is why we are taking it to have your name etched into it."

fun party. good memories. i love my family and look forward to this every year.