Every year we make it a point to get a real tree for Christmas and this year was no exception, and, as Lisa says every year, "this is the best tree ever."
Since moving to Northern Nevada we have always purchased our tree at the Fellowship of Christian Athletes tree lot where proceeds are used to provide Christmas gifts for local kids and families in need. It is all part of why this is "the most wonderful time of the year."
In keeping with our annual tradition, we only open one, maybe two gifts on Christmas Eve and leave the rest for Christmas morning. Here Caleb is first in line to open his first present. It was so great this year to have both kids home over the Holidays.
Getting a reaction like this is why it's so much fun to give.
Chester looking on and very happy to be part of all the fun.
Our special family on Christmas morning.
Sweet Hannah and our wonderful pup.
On our Thanksgiving trip we stopped by a quilt shop in Boise where Bob caught Lisa eyeing this special Scandinavian quilt fabric, so while she wasn't looking he bought it and surprised her with it for Christmas.
Hannah had this custom key chain made for Caleb. It has special meaning because the picture on it is a miniature of the cover of the 445 page book he is just finishing titled, A Chronicle of Sixteen Stars.
Caleb is really a remarkable guy who is doing very well in his Junior year in Mechanical Engineering at UNR, being a Resident Assistant for 71 freshman at UNR's Great Basin Hall, and then having the time to write a 445 page book, participate in church activities and go on regular long distance runs. We are very proud of him!
Hannah, like Lisa, loves to cook and here she is expressing how great this Bourbon Vanilla Bean Paste from Trader Joes is.
The joy from the laughter on Christmas morning is the best!
Bob and our special little elf.
Now that Bob has retired he has time to make gifts, not just buy them.
This year he built miniture paring knife blocks for Hannah and Lisa, and one to hold pens and paint brushes for Caleb.
This year Bob's brother Andy built wonderful model rafts of those they we took on our Grand Canyon River trip earlier in the year and gave one to everyone who was on the trip. While Lisa was decorating the house she put these silly personal ornaments in Andy's model raft -- how fun!
Alongside the raft and ornaments are a couple of the blocks Bob built this year.
Dad elf.
Our collection of wonderful gifts after a great Christmas Eve and Morning.
A regular tradition around our house on Christmas day is building puzzles. Here's one of 30 WPA National Parks posters that Bob and Hannah had just finished. It was so fun...
The day after Christmas we took a drive to to visit Fort Churchill State Park. It was a rather windy and overcast day and a perfect time to take a beautiful, 40 mile, backcountry drive along the Carson River near where we live to Fort Churchill.
This is a picture from the entrance of the park to some of the ruins that surround the Fort's parade grounds. The story behind the park is very interesting.
Fort Churchill also served as one of the Pony Express stations between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California. This is a picture of Bob and the kids in front of the memorial plaque.
The kids framed by one of the old adobe window openings.
On a short hike along the Carson River.
Hannah captured this great picture through two window openings and beyond to the Carson River bottom.
Bob walking along the parade ground where many soldiers once marched in the 1860's. What an amazing history.