Christmas-- the condensed version

To help get this blog up to date here's the quick version of Christmas. With Grandma and Grandpa Dunn in town we had lots of fun. We spent Christmas Eve morning mini golfing. It was gorgeous weather-- notice the sandals and T shirts, don't notice how my tummy looks like a beach ball. And to preserve grandpa's dignity I won't post the video of him falling into one of the water features. At least it was a warm day. And in a Christmas Eve miracle we all ended up with the exact same score!

Christmas Eve night the parents went to Alec and Dixie's to have their time with them. We all gathered for a delicious meal of soup (thanks Dixie!) and read the nativity story. Henry and H were more interested in the flashlights though. Then we headed home to get things ready for Santa. Henry went right to sleep-- I was sure he'd try and sneak down but he went right to bed and didn't wake till his normal time. Watching him come down stairs was adorable. To everything he said "it's just what I've always wanted!" He dumped out everyone's stockings to make sure that we noticed all the great stuff we got. It ended up being a bit of a wii Christmas for us. Henry got a Diego wii game from Santa, Dell got Boom Blox wii from Santa, Henry gave me Tetris for the wii (0h so fun, I play almost every night!), and then Uncle Dave and Auntie Margaret became the king and queen of Christmas with their gift of Lego Stars Wars. Henry is completely obsessed now. And it's hilarious! Henry also got a riding horse, space shuttle toy and a knight castle. Both have been well played with, thought the knights sometimes have hilarious battles.

The day after Christmas the parents had to head home to Utah and my cousin Alan and his family arrived from Houston to spend the night and attend their niece's baptism the next morning (quick explanation-- Alan's wife is Holly. Holly's brother lives in our ward. Brother's house was already full of family coming for the baptism so we hosted Alan and Holly's family, plus Holly's sister.) And Alan and Holly play settlers so we had a great time with them. Come back anytime Alan and Holly!

Then the night that Alan and Holly left Dell's brother Brent and his family rolled into town. (Though their family of 7 stayed with Alec and Dixie so our house felt a little empty.) Now Brent and Shauna are some of the most FUN people I know. So you know we had a blast. For pictures of the spray whipped cream, marshmallow and pudding fight check out my sister-in-law Dixie's blog (see link on the side). We also went to Sea World. I love the dolphin show!

Here's all the cousins outside of sea world. My sweet little boy picked a pansy for me to wear in my hair. Have to teach him that bringing his mother flowers is wonderful, but we shouldn't pick them from other's yards. Oh well. It was fun to have a yellow pansy in my hair for a bit.

Henry was about 1/2 an inch too short for every ride by this one. Can you see the smile on his face? Henry had always professed to be afraid of rollercoasters (though facinated by them as well) but he loved this Shamu one. Hopefully next time we go he'll be an inch taller and we can go on more rides together.

Highlights from Sea World include:

• The man that tried to park his family right in the middle of 20 Dunns at the dolphin show-- he was upset that we were saving seats but since we'd been hanging out for 30 minutes and there were plenty of seats elsewhere we weren't feeling too sympathetic.
• Auntie Shauna dancing her heart out and singing to every song before the Shamu show-- and it got her and Aerie up on the big screen.
• All the cousins playing in the giant sandbox together.
• Watching Henry on the roller coaster
• Henry and the map. That kid loves maps.
• Watching my niece Sally while everyone else was off adventuring. I think we played with a rockI drew a face on for 20 minutes. It was great fun.
• Being with Dell. Thank you to the kind radiologist that let him off early that day.
• Having so many Dunns together and watching how well the cousins play together.
• Getting to chat with my dear sister-in-laws. I have the best sister-in-laws in the world!

So that's our Christmas in a nutshell. Ya'll are invited next year. Let me tell you, Texas Christmases may not be white, but 70 degree weather and blue skies seems a fair tradeoff. :)