it's a very ten eyck christmas

Once we got downstairs.... the kids checked the note and the milk and cookies to see if Santa had fueled up at his stop at our place... and he HAD! Not only that, but he wrote a thank you note... a testament to his stellar manners :) He even neglected to mention that the cookies Dave and I left him were absolutely AWFUL- not my fault!! Dave is always trying new organic and 'healthy' recipes for sweets, and this one was a BOMB, according to Dave! I'm like, pass the oreos, homes!!

Reason #14,237 why I LOVE my Jack... he insisted that we get Baba a gift- a toy cell phone- and then was making calls to all of Baba's friends wishing them a happy holiday! He was calling Blanky, of course!

This is my awesome gift pile- a testament to how well my family knows me! I got some seat protectors for my kids car seats so they don't damage my leather seats; a book on the Beatles (I am a BIG fan), some colorful wool socks, and other socks from Dave bc I always gank his socks- he gets the BEST socks from EMS, and I just love them, sorry honey! and a big bling ring from Jack in the shape of a heart, because he loves me so...

Here the aptly named 'Pony' eats her breakfast that Georgie Girl sets out for her!

And my boy... in his GLORY! This little guy just loves his trains and man was he pumped to get this Holiday Edition Lionel G Scale train!


Quintessential Georgie.....I have some pictures of me when I was little doing this almost exact pose... I gotta dig those up!!!

Here's my little kitchen helper, she just loves cooking with mama!


That's right people.... real yummy homemade french toast.. made with italian bread but whatever!! :P

I love how they just let me shoot to my heart's content...

You know you are the child of a photographer when you know how to 'smile with your eyes'

Big Daddy Ten Eyck having a tea party with the little Miss


I'm not sure who was cuter on Christmas morning... the kids or Dave! Once Georgie's little kitchen was set up the night before thanks to her grandparents! Dave went running up to the attic and started digging out little accessories that he had squirreled away... like the Hello Kitty trash can we had up there, and the little wooden baby highchair for Georgie's dolls... and then the cutest was the top to some container, he said 'look! a serving tray!' COME ON!!!! Holy cuteness. So Miss Georgie piled her 'new' serving tray high with goodies and went around offering everyone a treat... here Jack makes his selection very, very carefully! (I picked the cookie and the lettuce ;)

Jack's grandfather got him an N scale train, which is the smallest scale, I think... and then they built all kinds of tunnels for it to go thru out of the used up boxes that all of their toys came in... my family LOVES to recycle and be creative!

After the craziness of the morning subsided, Jack and Georgie took a little sibling time to just catch up and have some tea

Now I am about to BUST Dave UP here... he is out of his mind. So frugal. So tight with his wallet with the most random things! I think most people get caught up with this one, me? Not so much! The price of GAS? Really? OK, even if it's 10 cents more at one place than another, you have a 15 gallon tank, right? OK, that's only ONE DOLLAR AND FIFTY CENTS MORE to fill up at the other place!!! AHHHHH!!! That's IT! Here Dave and his Dad were doing some complicated math equations trying to see if if was worth charging their gas to get back 5% or to pay cash.... really. Really. REALLY!!! But then they'll go blow money on some high end hoo ha or another, and not bat an eye. But I KNOW it's because they saved that $1.50 per fill up... right!

I love my sister in law Kate and her husband Noah... they are just wonderful people. Here Kate and Dave are belting out some Beatles tunes for Christmas! That's just our tradition, don't hate. Now when Dave usually sings he kinda sounds like Kermit the frog- this is not a rank- but an observation, Kermit is cute, right? But this year he got all into it and came up with some interesting vocal arrangements for songs like 'Blister in the Sun' not a Beatles song but a request from Jack, it's a Violent Femmes song...my other new Dave fave is his rendition of Mariah Carey's Christmas song, he couldn't remember the melody and just improvised, it was actually pretty awesome!! (even tho I was giggling while doing the Hello Kitty puzzle while he was doing it) But who is the bigger nerd here? LOL

Just adding more cuteness to the pile of cuteness that is my family...

Here is was just messing with Dave, trying to see how close I could get to him to make him mess up and laugh while he was singing! He is such a good sport :)

And then back to our regularly scheduled tea party... this time with Pony.

One of the things I used to love doing when I was little was talking on the phone. The one that wasn't even plugged in to the wall. Just having pretend conversations. Looks like Georgie is too! Here she is gabbing it UP with her friend Reilly! (who isn't really on the phone, of course)

And...SCENE! How else to end a Christmas without some wildlife? This is what you get when you fill the cats bowl too much... you get an all you can eat light hanging over my house for all of the creatures in the woods! YUCK!