When we celebrated with my mom's side of the family Kate got a Zsu Zsu Pet. She was absolutely enamored with the way it made noise and would move along a smoot surface. Pretty soon the whole room was enamored with her as her enthusiasm was quite infectious. In the picture below she's showing off her new toy to great-grandpa Vryhof and eliciting grins and laughs from everyone.
Drew and Kate both like to dress up and role play. One of the things they got were some dress up clothes to facilitate that imaginative play. The first thing Drew tried on was a doctor's outfit. He looks pretty natural in that outfit, doesn't he? (He still desperately wants to be a firefighter when he grows up though)
Jana and I continued our family tradition of having the kids pick out our presents for each other. Drew and Kate mainly receive gifts, so we have been making a concerted effort to remind them of the value of giving. I shopped first with the kids and then Jana shopped with them. We learned from my experience and the kids (well, basically Kate) did a lot better job with keeping my present a secret. For Jana we went to the mall to find a necklace. As we were walking around a store looking at jewelry, Drew looked up, pointed to the necklace that Jana is wearing in the picture below, and he said, "Mom would look beautiful in that necklace." Sold!
We also got Jana travel mugs from Biggby Coffee. I had this great idea to let each child pick out a mug. Great idea, but when we got to the shop they both picked out the same one. I didn't anticipate that one. I couldn't get either child to budge, so we ended up with two of the exact same travel mug for Jana. I also failed to impress on Kate that this mission was a secret one because the first thing she said to Jana when we saw her was, "We got you a mug for Christmas! It's from Biggby Coffee." The only part of the gift that remained a surprise was that Jana got two of the same mug!
For my gifts, both Drew and Kate did a nice job of keeping me in the dark. One of my gifts was a nice selection of microbrew beers. When I picked up the wrapped present at our family Christmas celebration and felt the weight, I asked, "What is in here? It's heavy!" Without hesitation, Kate replied with a forlorn voice, "It's just bottles."
Drew enjoyed Todd's new dog, Mattie, at my family's Christmas celebration. While Mattie sat in Grandpa Bill's lap, Drew giggled away and let Mattie lick his face. With Jana and I both suffering from animal allergies, it was fun to watch Drew enjoying a dog.
No particular story is associated with this picture from celebrating Christmas with Jana's family. I think I enjoy it because it shows off the similarity between mother and daughter. Over the past few months we've had many people note how much Kate looks like Jana. I have two beautiful women in my life!
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