Wagenbach and Rassi Christmases

The Wagenbach Christmas was on the Friday before Christmas Day.  I was supposed to bring vegetable for the group and had planned on bringing corn.  Greg decided we should try something different, so he had me pick up two pounds of Brussels sprouts and made this recipe.


I can honestly say that I've never eaten Brussels sprouts before.

With the shallots, cream, mustard, and the bacon that Greg added in the end, they weren't too bad.  The sprouts themselves still weren't just awesome, but many people tried them and only a small serving was left!  At least we can say we've tried them...but I don't see them getting added to our normal vegetable rotation any time soon.

I think we were all supposed to get our family's picture taken this year at the Christmas...I know we never got our kids around to do it, though.  Greg got some nice pictures of the Kauzlarich's, at least!

What a handsome family! :)

Then Grandpa and Grandma wanted a picture with all of their 8 great-grandchildren.  The lighting wasn't the best, but at least we got mostly smiles!

Maybe since they are all looking away, some one else got a great picture of everyone looking at them. :)

Mom and her sisters

I don't have any other pictures from that get-together...I know a group of people played Sequence and there was a lot of eating and talking and laughing...everything that makes a family Christmas great!

The next day, Saturday, was the Rassi Christmas at Dad and Mom's house.  Festivities started with lunch at 12:30.

Mike carving the prime rib...I don't think he got first choice of aprons. :)

It's so fun to see the 3 and 4 year old boys playing together!

I was trying to get a picture of Creighton, but he was being ornery and running away...

...even going to hide by his mom and dad!

He came back to me, though, and I got a good one!  What a cutie!

After lunch, the kids played while dishes were cleaned up.  Amazingly enough, there were kids playing on the swing set!  That hasn't happened at too many Christmases!  Greg took some of the older boys out and played football, which they loved.  I was taking care of Tirzah the whole time so we didn't get any pictures of the outdoor fun.

After some kids took naps and the dishes were done, it was time for the nativity play.  Once Kate and Hope drew toothpicks to decide who would be Mary this year, everyone got dressed and ready to act.

Doesn't Kate look angelic? :)

Jack was a great Joseph...he got into his role.

Max got to be a shepherd for the first time!  He was so excited to hold his sheep!  Elisabeth and Grace did a great job of keeping him where he needed to be...

...including going to the manger, where Max decided to play a song for Baby Jesus on his 'staff.'

Wise men Todd, Jacob, and Joel came and gave their gifts, too.  Todd is putting away his laser pointer, which he creatively used as the 'star' that they followed. :)

Once the nativity play was done and we sang a few Christmas carols, it was finally time for presents!  Mom wrote numbers 1-36 on pieces of paper and we each drew one to see what order we would open our gifts. It really worked out well!  A couple of times one of the little kids would re-draw if they were too far down the line, but it all worked out.

Nora just in the past few weeks has been really loving her baby dolls.  She feeds them, gives them naps, etc.  That made me very glad since I knew my mom was getting her a Bitty Baby for Christmas!

Mom and I were as excited as Nora for her to open her present!

I love the look on her face as she studies her new baby.

Of course, right away she wanted to undress it...I put the new clothes on for her.

She had a purple outfit..."Just like me!" as Nora would say.  The funniest thing is that the doll only stayed dressed for about 5 minutes.  Then Nora took all the clothes off, including her diaper, and told me, "She pooped.  I have to wash it off."  So she 'washed' the diaper and then had me put it back on.  Apparently that's the most exciting part about having a baby!  I think most of the dolls in our house don't have any clothes on...I guess I need to start teaching Nora how to dress them. :)

Tirzah figured out that she could climb the two steps from the family room into the kitchen...and she was pleased as punch with herself!  I happened to look over and saw her sitting like this on the top step...once my heart resumed beating and I made sure she wasn't going to jump off, I told Greg to get the camera!

She...

is just...

so cute!

After the present aftermath was cleaned up, Dad made the usual delicious punch and we had sandwiches for supper.  All of the excitement from the day wore out poor Seth!

He was in a deep sleep, too, given all the noise around him.

During/after supper, a few games were played, like Blokus.

Laurie was yellow and got every one of her pieces on the board!  I've only seen that a couple of times, I think.

Yay, Laurie! :)

We were the last ones to leave and Greg helped clean up while I got our kids ready for bed.  The last fun thing of the day was getting rides from Uncle Phil on Mom's new tire horse swing for the swing set.

We had a great couple of days of Christmases, but we weren't done yet!  Christmas Day was still to come...