Well, we have made it safely to Michigan after two days of traveling. But before we left we had a very lovely Christmas starting with our (very successful!) Christmas Eve pageant.

It looked a little sketchy at dress rehearsal, but the kids pulled it together and pulled it off. Miss Addie (assisted by Daddy) was the Star bearer.

And Emmy was an angel again, but she had lines this year!

After mass I was hoping and trying for a sweet Christmas Eve photo but could only contain long enough for this…

There were many things to do like write letters and put out cookies and milk for Santa.

Then it was off to bed, and Santa stopped by.

And all chaos ensued.

Santa was very good to Mommy. (And Uncle Jeff helped, too. Thank you!!)

Now you may be wondering why I needed a new camera. I’ve been giving J. a bunch of reasons for many months now (since my birthday) why I didn’t need a new one like, “Um, my old one if just fine.” “I’m only taking photos of the girls mostly.” “It isn’t like I’m being paid to take photos.”

But he didn’t really listen to any of that – or the fact that my tickets to Michigan was supposed to be my Christmas present. I must say when I opened the box, and got a whiff of that new camera smell, it was hard to protest.  My old camera we bought before Addie, so it is five years old. That is not ancient by any means, but it has only 6.1 megapixels image quality – and my new one is 12.3! Dude. That is serious. And it does video. And a million other things that I’m furiously reading the owner’s manual to figure out. It made the allure of the new camera so hard to resist, so I gave in. And then (ever so patiently!) waited for the battery to charge so I could use it.

We got some a few other favorite things as well.

And went out to pick a few lemons for our Christmas drink of lemonade!

And Emma read us the book she got for Addie.

We had a little Chinese food for dinner and then packed the evening away so we could leave bright and early the next morning.

Now Christmas continues…