Christmas 2009 Picture Bonanza Volume 1: Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve this year was set aside to celebrate with the Jones side of the family.  Thankfully Gwyn has been home recently from Uganda visiting for the holidays- so she joined us and Mom and Dad Jones, and Bethany and Aaron for a day filled with tasty food and gifts (and even some sledding.)  With this many pictures, and with so many more to come, I'll leave them for you to decipher.  Who is in them? What is going on?  Where is it?  Thats for you to figure out.  Enjoy.

Volume 2 to appear soon...

A Seasons Greetings

Hi folks,

I don't know about you all, but its been quite a whirlwind for our family these last few days.   Between presents, and food, and church, and food, and time spent with both families, and so much food it has been difficult to take a moment to simply catch our breath and look around.  

Well, thankfully on this (appropriately dreary) day after Christmas there is finally time to stop and realize how blessed we have been these last few days and throughout this year of 2009.  We feel so fortunate to be able spend time with our families, and for the memories that we made with them and with Aiden this year.

We hope that everyone out there has enjoyed, and will continue to enjoy, similar blessings throughout the rest of the holiday season.  Merry Christmas!

A Christmas Challenge

This Christmas season we, the parents of the Jones household, joined Moms and Dads everywhere in the age old ritual of attempting to get a reasonably good picture of our child in front of the Christmas tree.  This is, as you might expect, a deceptively difficult task.  And my guess is that as the child's age increases, so to increases the level of difficulty in capturing a successful photo-op.

With our picture for the year recently completed I thought I'd share the long and sometimes frustrating progression to get that one decent shot.  Here are all of Aiden's attempted Christmas pictures, along with the reason that each one didn't make the cut...

Waving:

Shouting:

Jumping:

Interpretive dancing:

Head too high:

Head too low:

Eyes too sad:

Eyes closed entirely:

Clearly desiring to bean the camera man with a Christmas ornament:

And finally, the winner:

Whew!

No Day Like a Snow Day

This past weekend we were, along with most everyone else on the east coast, snowed in.  While not always a good thing to be trapped in you own home, in this instance our situation was near perfect.  During our time of snowy imprisonment we were free to relax, to take things slowly, and to simply enjoy our time at home together.  It was nice.

And of course once the white stuff stopped falling we had to pull Aiden's sled out of the basement and head out into the tundra for some sledding.  That was pretty fun too...

A Very City Christmas 2009

This past weekend we went on our 2nd annual "Center City Christmas Trip" (you gotta start these tradition things somewhere right?)  We had a great couple of days with some exceptional weather, and lots of fun memories.

After some intial trepidation Aiden seemed to settle in nicely to our downtown hotel.  He very much enjoyed eating and coloring in his executive desk chair, and definitely loved our two trips to the hotel pool.

Like I said before, we got some really gorgeous weather during our stay: bright and sunny with just enough chill in the air to remind us that its Christmas time.

When we were out and about one of our first stops was at the Christmas tree in front of city hall.

Just like last year we made a visit the Comcast Center where they have a Christmas show on the gi-normous screen in the building's lobby.  This year the show was in 3D, thus the ridiculous looking 3D glasses.

On our way back towards the Macy's light show we passed City Hall again.  I can't walk by that building without a) thinking that its quite a stunner and b) reliving the time that we stood in that very spot on a certain fall day in 2008 as a championship parade passed by. Ahhh.....

The Macy's light show was as entertaining as ever, and Jen really enjoyed pointing out to Aiden her favorite parts from her own childhood viewings of this special production.

As always, there were a few memorable moments that we didn't get any pictures of.  We had a great time walking in Rittenhouse Square, and visiting the Reading Terminal Market.  In fact some of the best times involved not doing anything at all, like relaxing in the hotel room while Aiden napped quietly in the corner.  

All in all it was a great trip.  We really enjoyed our few stolen moments away together, and it makes now even more excited for all the time we'll be able to spend with family in the weeks ahead.