Our Visit to Solvang

Last Monday, we took a trip to Solvang, CA. It is a small town with Danish architecture and lots of fun things to see.

Christmas Day 2010

We had a lovely Christmas Day in 2010. We slept in, then opened gifts. After a relaxing morning, we went to see the Disney movie "Tangled." It was such a nice day.

Christmas Eve

Every year, we let the kids open one gift on Christmas Eve. Sometimes we let them pick between their gifts from each other and those from us. This year, we made them open the gifts we bought them.





David tolerating our insanity.



Michael has been obsessed with getting a "Snuggie" for Christmas, but he didn't want one that was "girlie" or had a picture of a girl on the cover. We searched high and low. Finally, we found a camouflage one at Kohl's.



He loves it!


A.J. excited about his new pajama pants!

A Gingerbread House Extravaganza!

We hosted a gingerbread house making extravaganza at our house just before Christmas. We had so much fun with our friends!

White Elephant Gift Christmas Party

For the past few years, some of our friends have held a white elephant gift Christmas party. There is a sweater vest that, if you end up with it, you must wear to church the following day. Karen, kindheartedly, took the vest when it sat under the tree as the last gift. Everyone knew what it was, and no one wanted it. She pulled it off, looking fabulous!





We ended up with a small crockpot, and a "rocket car."




John took this picture of me, and I look half asleep, but I'm putting it up anyway, because it's the only one we have.

Christmas Decorations

We had some serious Christmas decorating problems this year. Our tree turned out fine.




So did the "Angel Tree" for church.


Our house, on the other hand, was just sad. We put up our lights from last year. One string didn't work, so we tested the other. It seemed fine, so we put it up. Then we put up some new LED lights for a classy, one-color light display. When we switched them on, the old string didn't work. I know I tested it, but for some reason, once it was up, it no longer worked.

We went to the store and bought another string, but it wasn't long enough. By the time we went back to the store, they were out. So we left up our sorry light display (which looked particularly sad next to our neighbors' fantastic displays). I forgot to take a picture of the finished product, but, trust me, you're not missing out. Here are a couple photos of the decorations going up.



AJ bought this sign for John for his birthday.