Christmas

Christmas.  Just the word evokes a torrent of memory.  Excited voices, crumpling wrapping paper, John Denver and the Muppets, cereal...  All of it adds up to Christmas Morning at the Walles home.

Grandma and Gramdpa Walles fed the artist in Meagan with supplies...

...and the builder in Jacob with Minecraft Legos (you'll notice a theme here).

A foam Minecraft Pickaxe.  For when you have to mine something...really soft, I guess.

And then there was the MP4 player.  Now Meagan has all the room in the world to load the songs that she likes from Mom and Dad (as well as those that annoy them) on her own device.  With headphones.

And for those times that headphones just aren't loud enough, a dancing monkey speaker she can plug her MP4 player into.  Because everybody needs a dancing monkey in their life.  Seriously.  They do.

Somebody may or may not have discovered My Little Pony, which has, inexplicably, made a resurgence into popular culture recently.  I swear that for some odd reason I can't seem to nail down, when she wears this shirt, she's like 20% cooler than normal.  No idea why...

It's MINECRAFT... for X-Box 360.  For those times when Minecraft on iPad or PC simply won't do.

Look!  Jacob is happy about a book!  A BOOK!!!! Oh.  It's about Minecraft.  That explains it.

Meagan, on the other hand, LOVES books and so a kindle gift card to download some new ones is right up her alley.

LOOK!!! It's...it's...ANOTHER MINECRAFT BOOK!  Yay!!!  WAIT A MINUTE!  I see what you guys are up to.  You're trying to get me to <gasp> READ!!!

And then the family gift from Grandma and Grandpa Stumm...  A table runner from South Africa, where they served their mission.  It fits ours pretty darn good.

There were a few other things, but unfortunately, I was remiss in my duty to capture every single present to photo.  Yes, I know.  I'm a terrible, terrible person.  You can beat me later.  Christmas time is one of my favorite times of year.  I get to spend a significant portion of it with a family that I love very dearly.  Occasionally, that includes extended family (sometimes, in person, sometimes like this year, via Skype), but quiet (in a very general, not ACTUALLY quiet sense) Christmases with close family, to me, are best.  We can focus on being together, and more easily focus on the real reason we now celebrate, the birth of Christ, our Savior.

May your Christmases be full of joy and family and may you be filled with the magic and the spirit of this great season, and carry it with you all the year through.

- The Walles Family