Last Year's Christmas

I'm sure you ALL noticed how I did not post any pictures from Christmas 2011!  I realized this as I was putting out our Christmas decorations and went searching for pictures from last Christmas to remember how I had arranged things.  Without further ado, here are just a few pictures from last year (this year's pictures soon to come...first we have to decorate our still-naked Christmas tree):

Chet brought this ivory manger scene back from Africa:

Our "Charlie Brown" Christmas tree:

We had a few more decorations than this, but I wanted to spare you from seeing the exact same decorations twice (you'll see the rest of them in the Christmas 2012 post).

I distinctly remember Sydney NOT being photogenic last Christmas.  These are from Christmas Eve, right before we went to our church's Christmas Eve service.  Didi was in town (she left Christmas afternoon).  Sydney insisted on making this face in nearly all of the pictures (when she decided to look at the camera):

This was the best picture I got:

Here's a standing picture, so you can see the whole outfit (courtesy of Didi):

Lorelei, all slumped over before she put the red dress on:

Didi and the girls:

A couple of present-opening pictures:

Yikes...