Mar comes with strings attached and it was good to hear his music again. 
Seth also brings strings and keeps our toes tappin'
Nathan brought some of his Sacred Harp Music and we enjoyed using it while we sang Christmas carols. We added to our LDS hymnal collection with a Methodist hymnal this year which includes some of those lovely French carols that aren't included in our hymnal because of their Catholic oriented message. Those tunes have such lovely melodies so it was fun to sing them. 
Sally had her first piano time with Uncle Seth.
We played with food - in many forms.... you'll have to settle for pictures of our marzipan food. The cheese spread with friends was hidden from the camera - but really yummy. Two of the kid's friends that we love the most came by and visited. It was fun to see them again. K&M made Finnish pulla bread for us. Also yummy were Nathan's cranberry gummy candies and the chocolates send by Grandparents.
Empty pop cans became camp stoves. Pyros live here so ...yes, of course they were given a test to see if they worked. The Wii got used and movies got watched. Walks were taken and Christmas light displays were admired..
As Seth said "We need to plan for time when everyone just reads" Several of us read "The Lost Symbol" - The older boys rummaged around and found books long neglected. Seth found a collection of letters that DER and I had written long ago when the kids were little and enjoyed the tidbits about the older kids when they were little - before he was born. Sally and her mom read "Rain Makes Applesauce" 
We had family pictures taken. The photographer came to the house - I think that actually made it easier. Well except that we had to do some clean up afterwards. Mar shaved the day before. Nate and Seth continued to grow their Christmas beards and are showing their sprouts in the pictures. Sally charmed the photographer and was perfectly sweet inspite of being tired.
We laughed and played wtih sweet Sal. The photographer wasn't the only one completely charmed by her. We all were.
We pet Kangaroos and Wallabyes and fed burros and llamas at the Kangaroo Farm. Well some of us were brave enough to feed the llamas and some of us weren't.....
They had you put this compressed alfalfa pellet in our mouth and the llamas came to get it. The zoo is cleaner, but you don't get to feed the animals or hold baby kangaroos at the zoo. The baby kangas were sweet.
It was fun to be together. The Christmas tree came out a little early and it seemed more spacious with the extra room. However it took me most of this past week to get things back together. So not I'm ready for those resolutions - and maybe I'm going to try to make them one month at a time...... This month the goal is to have a better morning routine. Of course it would help if I weren't waking up at 3 and 4 in the morning with "power surges" so maybe I'll roll with the punches and not get too excited about the routines.
