Oh there's no place like home for the holidays

Christmas was a blast.  I love that holiday. It was delightful to be home in PA to celebrate with all 18 Babbels. 

Here are the grandkids acting out the nativity story for our Christmas Eve celebration.  (We're missing two sheep in this picture, who had crawled away from the shepherd Chase.)  As you can see, Joseph and Mary were ecstatic about baby Jesus.  WHOOPEE!

Ladies and gentlemen, here is Benson's memorization magnum opus: THE NATIVITY STORY.  He nailed it.  I guess my special visual aids worked!  (And yes, we'll be working on his stage presence for next year.) 

We did our traditional age-order lineup on Christmas morning, and we all marched up the stairs and into the living room to discover what Santa had put under the tree...

An autographed picture of Pele!

 A magnetic zoo!

A new football!

Swords!

We didn't waste any time opening and playing with our sweet new presents.

Our next-door neighbors the Smiths came over on Christmas night for cocoa and cookies.  These guys are the BFF of neighbors.

The Smiths don't have any grandkids yet, and our nine tend to overwhelm outsiders (and insiders) when they're all awake, so we purposefully asked the Smiths to come over at 8:30 pm after the kids were already dreaming of sugarplum fairies.

John and I drove the boys downtown to the Please Touch Museum.  As we walked up (we parked several blocks away to avoid the hefty parking lot fee), we soaked in the gorgeous architecture and commented how much we LOVE Philadelphia.  I mean honestly, how many children's museums look like this???  We decided to settle down in PA one day so our kids can experience this rich culture.

And then we got inside the museum.  We were aghast when we were told the cost of admission, and humiliated as we quickly calculated how many hours of work it would take us to earn that money. We mumbled a lame excuse to the ticket lady and just went into the gift shop instead of going to see the exhibits.  John and I were reminded that there is a downside to the east coast!  (Actually, the real downside is that we're poor!)  Oh well.  It sure was a beautiful exterior and a fancy gift shop. 

For Family Home Evening one night, my mom taught us all a lesson about the Sermon on the Mount, and she actually made a mountain of pillows to sit on.  It was a fun lesson that I'm sure we'll never forget.

I'm definitely going to copy this idea for my Primary kids at church, so if you live in Milwaukee, there's a good chance I'll be knocking on your door asking to borrow some couch cushions.

Here's Zaya and Chase demonstrating the scripture about "an eye for an eye" verse from the Sermon on the Mount. Clever.

We didn't arrange this on purpose, but we somehow ended up with three rounds of grandkids-- the three big kids, the three 3-year olds, and the three babies.  Here's the baby contingent-- Ivy, Brooks, and Cole-- chilling in their high chairs.   

--Help yourself, Brooks.

--Don't mind if I do.

The big gift in everyone's stocking this year was a ticket to Disney on Ice!  

It was A-MAZ-ING.  And inspiring.  My New Year's Resolution is figure out figure skating.

Here are the New Orleans townsfolk from The Princess and the Frog.

Flynn Rider skating around with Rapunzel.

M-I-C,
K-E-Y,
M-O-U-S-E!

Tyson and I met up with our childhood buddies Paola and Dan during intermission.  This is actually an amazing coincidence.  Paola and I were trying to make plans to see each other sometime over Christmas, and while we were coordinating schedules over the phone we realized that Santa had given both of us tickets to the same Disney on Ice performance!  Same day and same matinee showtime.  Perfect!  

Oh, and Paola does have a cute baby bump, but I don't.  It's just the way my shirt hangs. 

That's a wrap.  HAPPY holidays!