thenorthnest: A Florida Christmas and Photo Shoot

Yes, I am still blogging about Christmas. The reason it's taken so long is that I have had to beg, borrow and steal photos from others to put together the posts. I completely forgot to take photos, do you ever do that?

This Christmas all of my siblings came down to Florida to be together as a family. Unfortunately my parents were feeling ill most of the time, so they were only able to crawl out of bed to celebrate with us for part of the time. Jena, Ram and Anushka stayed with us for part of their trip while Mom and Dad rested up.

We took them to the airplane park.

And took in the views of downtown St. Pete.

Back home Anushka and Elle got down and dirty cleaning with baby wipes.

Tommy recruited people to read his Thomas books.

Elle played beauty shop with Auntie Jena.

And I painted toenails, Tommy even tried to get some polish action...sorry Tom!

Elle showed off her nail drying skills.

Here's a little Christmas Jingle performed by the little kiddos:

We Jena and the girls made sugar cookies, while I watched.

Anushka was quick on the draw on the cleaning effort. Thanks babe!

Uncle Kris flew in from Cleveland, and the kids immediately attacked him.

I did a little photo shoot for the Vijayakumar family. Here are some of my faves.

You can view all of their photos by clicking here.

Our Christmas morning with the kids was enchanting once again.

Their excitement and belief makes it all the more magical, making me long for the days when I was a child on Christmas.

Van Gogh left them a note letting them know they made the "NICE" list after Santa checked his list twice. I can see the gears turning in Elle's head, she is in disbelief that so much of her naughty behavior was off of Santa's radar this year...

They tore open their presents.

Tommy found his table, and hasn't stopped playing with it since.

Christmas at Mom and Dad's was fantastic. We ordered Thai food, decorated our Christmas cookies and enjoyed the sunny weather.

The ladies watched a movie together.

And when present opening rolled around there was a lot of squealing--from children and adults alike. Grandma and Papi Claus know their crew very well and went overboard as usual!!!