Holiday flashback episode

It was Laurel's first Christmas! And Isaac's fifth Christmas! Two years ago he had a hard time even getting his presents open, but now he's getting to be an old hand at it.

Laurel, with her appetite for paper, made a relatively adept present unwrapper, although she did get distracted by things like gift tags, bows, and toy packaging.

Here they are, laughing on Christmas night beneath their Opa and Oma's tree.

We celebrated a more traditional Christmas this year. Unlike last year, when we stayed home because I was so pregnant, this year we made our traditional 100-mile trip to my parents' house. And we attended the traditional Christmas Eve dinner with my mother's side of the family, complete with more than 40 relatives, a huge amount of prime rib, and enthusiastic caroling around the piano. The kids both had fun; this year Isaac even seemed to enjoy my uncles' teasing.

On Christmas Day we had a family brunch at my parents' house, including my maternal grandmother, and in the afternoon we went to my paternal grandmother's house.

Did the kids like their presents? I think so. Isaac said many times how much he loved various items, and Laurel stuck all of hers in her mouth.

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Sadly, it's been a few years since we were able to fly to South Carolina to visit Craig's parents for Christmas. Before Isaac was born, Craig and I used to fly there every year on Christmas Day. But we have only gone once at Christmastime since Isaac was born! We went in December 2006 when Isaac was 15 months old, but flying cross-country with children during the holidays is expensive and grueling. Also, that trip ended up being sort of a bummer because Isaac was very sick while we were there. (We visited in March and October of 2008 instead, and had a lot of fun.)

This year we celebrated Craig's family traditions by baking sugar cookies using his mother's recipe. Isaac helped me every step of the way; he especially enjoyed decorating the cookies with frosting and sprinkles, with which he was rather generous. Then we packaged up the cookies and Isaac gave them as presents!