Family Christmas ~

Santa brought me a wonderful gift, a couple days before Christmas. My sister and her boys zipped into town as a holiday surprise. My sister had to leave the day after Christmas, but they boys are staying until New Year's. I have my nephews, staying in my house, for a whole week.  They are growing up so fast, and I know they time they'll want to spend here is limited, so I cherish every moment.

The last time we had all the kids together was eight years ago. I bought them all new shirts and took them to Sears for a portrait.  The colors of their shirts indicate which kids are siblings.

Here they are now, in the same places.  My babies aren't babies anymore.  My sister took these photos, along with group photos of the siblings.  I loaded them onto a digital photo frame for my mom's Christmas gift.  I added some of my siblings and me when we were little, and some favorites from over the years.

Here's one from about 1971. I'm in the red dress. This one went on my mom's digital frame.

After our photo shoot, I served lasagna to everyone.  It was so much fun, I did it again Christmas morning, whipping up brunch with Walker's help.  Walker had to work Christmas night, so we decided brunch would work better than a dinner later in the day.  Since I'm not a morning person, I added a little motivation to my OJ - it's spiked with champagne. 

And now, to ensure my nephews stay with me the next time they're in town, I whipped up some chocolate croissants.  Okay, I baked frozen croissant dough I bought from QVC.  But they're so delicious, nobody cares that they aren't made from scratch.