Christmas

We celebrated Christmas again this year with my parents but things were a little different with the girls around!  Here is our skinny tree with my parent's' cat Casper snoozing under it (he is a big cat, but our tree was a little smaller this year...)

 

On Christmas Eve the girls "opened" their first gifts.  Mostly they just played with the ribbon and tried to put it in their mouths!  Elsie is on the right.

 

Christmas morning, Elsie is opening her star ornament gift from Anthony and Michael.

 

Matthew reading a new Sandra Boyton book from Uncle Nathan to Leonie.

 

They liked the colorful wrapping paper!  And thanks Aunt Emily for the cute outfits.

 

The cute little high chairs from Emily and Miran made perfect seats for gift opening.  The girls are almost strong enough to hold themselves up but still need a little support.

 

Playing with their gifts.

 

A Bertch family tradition was to take a photo of all our gifts each year.  It is fun to look back and see when some of the beloved toys entered our family.  Here are the girls with most of their gifts!  (We missed a few that got opened later)

 

Grandma Sue got them their first Breyer horses as stocking stuffers.

 

Taking a break to cheer up Leonie with Super Baby before trying another family photo op.

 

We didn't really get a good photo of all of us looking at the camera, but I like this one instead!

 

Grumps with Leonie and Grandma Sue with Elsie.

 

Another Bertch tradition - cutout cookies!  These are my Grandma's recipe (my mom's mom).  The girls didn't get to participate much this year but they enjoyed watching the production and testing out the cookie cutters.

 

Another tradition of ours is making ornaments each year.  My mom and I decided to make cross stitch ornaments similar to my first ornament in 1986.

 

 

Finally, a photo of mom and I riding.  We didn't end up going on Christmas or Christmas Eve like usual, but we did make it out during their visit.