Christmas Eve!

So Opa finally arrived, albeit sick. He missed his connection too, just as Oma had one week before, and it turned out that it was because he passed out at Chicago O'Hare airport. He had been standing in line for customs and immigration and realized he was feeling rather week, so he went to the sideline and sat down on a bench, where he then fell asleep. He still doesn't know how long he slept, but he woke up long after his connection flight had departed. Whoops. After he then finally arrived at our house, he slept off and on for the next WEEK! Poor man - it was great having him here for the two weeks, but sad to see him so sick!

Christmas Eve Service - Lucia's first own candle. :) Oma came with Lucia and me, and Opa and Rhea stayed home and took care of each other. Christmas Eve - ready to open presents!

Looking at a National Geographic together

And Loxley had already found his (unwrapped) gift under the tree - a little bed for him. He crawled under there regularly to lie on it. :)

Lucia helping Papa unwrap something.

Aah, the joy of Playmobil. :) Lucia LOVES her Playmobil things, and ... so does Rhea. Most of the time, they play very well together (L: "Rhea, wanna come play People?" R: "Yeah! Comom, Cia!" (come on, Lucia) )

Helping Opa open a gift

Rhea and her new baby - you can see she's saying "baby" in the picture :)

Loxley enjoyed all the paper...

And Lucia was VERY happy with her little boombox CD player! Now she can listen to her own music in her room!

About ready for bed again after a successful Christmas Eve celebration. :)

And on Christmas Day, we finally got to bust into the Cookie House! Lucia had been patiently waiting for this day for a while. :)

Her piece of choice... the door!

An attempt at a family picture

Great picture (with the exception of Rhea's finger in her eye :) )

The girls playing contently with something under the tree... so sweet

I feel silly saying "Merry Christmas" now... in MARCH! But... there's no reason not to celebrate the birth of our Savior all throughout the year. Because without Christmas there would be no Easter, and so... rejoice! :)