Christmas 2010

I arrived to my moms on the 23rd at the same time as Sammy. All five of us were actually in the same house on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. First time in forever that we've had both kids on Christmas and we had a tree this year :)

Big Joe's tradition growing up was to open all presents on Christmas Eve so we all opened one and then, well, we ended up doing everything that night.

Baby Joe's big present was a Nintendo DSi, I have to admit it's pretty awesome. It has two giant touch screens with amazing graphics, you can load music on it like an iPod, it has wi-fi so you can get on the internet with it, plus a lot of other sweet features. He is a very happy boy and disappeared from reality for the next day.

Sammy's big present was a shopping spree because he's at an age that's impossible to shop for. He mainly bought himself Star Wars action figures with the money. He's been collecting them for several years and takes really great care of them. He doesn't like anyone to know he collects them though!


My big present is going to be a new laptop since the one I have dies randomly. I found out in a note inside an envelope, inside a wrapped box, inside a wrapped box, inside a wrapped box..... Same as Sam's money was and at least one present from Big Joe every year :) He laughs hysterically the whole time we open box after box.

I made an 8x10 photo collage of the three of us kids for my Mom, Sammy and one for at Tony's. I think my mom loved it, if not she's just a good actress ;) I also had a large print made of the five of us for her from Thanksgiving. I think all of us thought of photos this year because Big Joe had a "unique" photo thing done for us three kids and my mom made a photo calender for the three of us. I think the one I made was by far the best though!

I got Playboy Cologne for Sammy, because he is a smelly teenager ;) Lego men for Baby Joe. And an electronic Suduko player for Big Joe because he's been addicted to Suduko ever since I gave him a book of the puzzles for Christmas two years ago :)
On Christmas day we all played with our new toys and I helped Joe build some of his. He got an awesome Marble Maze thing that took about 4 hours to build and all of us have played with it at some point. I also made Star Wars sugar cookies that little Joe helped me decorate and Sammy ate all of.

Big Joe left the day after for work. So we have all been hanging out watching movies, playing, reading and trying not to kill each other! I think everyone had a lovely Christmas this year :)

Holiday Shows

Joe's Christmas program was canceled on the 12th due to the weather but was able to be done later :) The 5th Grade did two songs Huron Indiana Carol and Trim up the Tree from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". The first one was your average Christmas carol and then for the second one the kids had props. They had a ball with it! Two kids got to go to the front and get covered in Christmas decorations and then go back into the group and Joe was one of them. He was grinning ear to ear, it was adorable. Because the show wasn't able to be done at it's original location and instead done in the School Gym it was pretty crowded and hard to see or get any real decent photos, but this is what I got :)




Then Joe had his Piano Recital this past weekend. It was done at a Catholic Nursing Home in town. Joe was really nervous and had called me that morning to say his tummy hurt and he didn't think he should go. However, he did not get out of it! There were fourteen children that played at the recital ranging from just starting to pretty dang good. Joe played Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. He is just starting and I can honestly say he hit all the right keys ;)




So that's it for the Joe Show today :)