Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year!

We had a great Christmas! My mom and dad were in Canada to celebrate Christmas with us for the first time in over ten years (in other words - since I was in high school, man I'm old...) It was so great having them and a few sisters from Thailand kicking around. (Plus Chris, the Irwins, and some of our Lewis side of the family.)
We had a great Christmas Eve - Scott did a beautiful service. (A big hi-light for me was the musical performance by the Bartlett family.) Scott's message got a lot of laughs and we had a lot of visitors new to the Gate there. We enjoyed a nice Asian appetizer buffet after and chatted with Becky and Matt (it was Christmas morning for them) for a bit. They are doing well - check out their blog, the link is to the right there under "Family Links".
We opened gifts with everyone at mom and dad's house on Christmas morning, popped over to see the Irwin grandparents and aunties and then headed back to visit with Grandma Lewis (in Evan's case, great-grandma Lewis) and so on. It was a full day, and Evan didn't open his presents from us until Boxing Day... (we'd gotten up later than we planned so we had to rush away Christmas morning.) I got a Nintendo DS from Scott for Christmas and a few games from him and Chris... I think they're trying to convert me to "gamer" person... so I'll bug them less or something... (I love it btw!)
I had to take the week before off Christmas as my co-worker had first choice this year and Scott didn't have any time off so Evan and I got to spend a lot of QT together. It was loads of fun! Evan seemed to enjoy having me to himself everyday, mixed in with visiting, candy making and present wrapping.
Today I went right back to work, worked like crazy to catch up from the previous week's holiday, and things are going to get back to normal now I guess. All in all Evan really seemed to enjoy this Christmas and has a nice new number of toys spread between our house and Grandma Purvis' (he spends his days there while I'm working so it's only fair...) The look on his face when he explored all his new presents was definitely in the priceless category.
To all our friends and family, we hope that your Christmas was full of family and fun and wish you a great new year! We love you and are so thankful to have so many wonderful people in our lives. We hope you forgive the lack of Christmas cards this year - we feel bad for the trees. (Christmas must be tough on them - Christmas trees, cards, wrapping paper, boxes, fireplaces blazing, etc...) Thank you all so much for the cards, presents, phone calls, visits, e-mails, blog posts, and ichats. Best wishes to you all and may the Lord of the season (and the universe) give you grace and peace. xoxoxoxoxoxo
Please see our pics below.