christmas with the linfords

before we left for boise, we did christmas with my family. all of my siblings and their families were there, which isn't that rare, but still fun when it happens.

these pictures don't really have anything to do with christmas. diane just loves my parents' cat and is pretty hilarious around him.

all of the grandkids in christmas pajamas from my mom and dad. it's really hard to get a picture of all of them together these days. rachel's not a big fan of the camera and diane doesn't really hold still. thus, beth and i are also part of the picture. you could sort of crop me out, but beth...

while everyone else was opening presents, diane pushed around the box where we were throwing the wrapping paper and took the paper out as fast as we could put it in.

the grandkids waiting with baited breath while my dad tried to unearth one of the toys. do any of the toy manufacturers actually have children? have any of them every tried to open one of the toys? if i have to undo one more twist-tie or cut into the impossible plastic casing that is costco's only downfall, i swear...

diane was going on pure adrenaline that night. she carried around her blanket and watched the chaos, but didn't really act tired until about two hours after her bedtime.

my thumb sucker.

madeleine got angelina's birthday for her birthday. i love these books and so does madeleine.

madeleine is at that phase where it is really hard to get a picture of her smiling that does not involve closed eyes or an excessively cheesy smile. all kids go through this, right?

a cooking set for her play kitchen. she loved this and carried it around with her the rest of the night.

beth made capes for the kids. they are reversible superman/batman capes and were quite the hit.

madeleine wanted hers turned around so that she could see it.

diane and diane.

randy looking hot in a new sweater.

my mom made each family a byu quilt this year. pretty fun. we are big byu geeks and all sang the fight song together. we figured out that we have nine byu degrees between all of us, with four more in progress. go cougars.

after all of the gift opening, i finally let madeleine open all of the kitchen set and spread it out so that she could see it.

in addition to christmas, our family has a whole bunch of birthdays to celebrate in december. matthew and madeleine are only a year and five days apart. so, in addition to a christmas celebration, we also celebrated everyone's birthdays.