It's a Christmas Miracle!!!!

Some of you with young kids may be familiar with the holiday video, "Elmo's Christmas Countdown." In it, Elmo and Stiller the Elf* try to save Christmas by recovering pieces 1-10 of the Christmas counter-downer so that Santa will come. 

Christmas Eve

(Quick preface: there is not a dedicated blog post to the Calvert Christmas festivities of December 23. My apologies to the generous hosts, the Humphreys, and all of our Calvert comrades... frankly, we were worn out from our Winona road trip, and I didn't take pictures. Next year!)

Since all of my parents' kids got married, we have transitioned our Christmas gift-opening to Christmas eve night. Over time, it's evolved into a great tradition, and this year, it was even better because my sister Megan and nephew Parker were in town!

Roberts Christmas in Winona

We decided a few weeks ago that it would work best for all of the branches of the Roberts family tree to do Christmas before Christmas. This made for a very busy December 17-21: I finished a semester (and all of the grading that accompanied it), Jeremy had a killer work week, we both finished our shopping and wrapping, and... when we got in the car on Saturday the 22nd, we took a deep exhale. : ) Time to enjoy the holidays! 

Eubanks Christmas in Caldwell

For the first time in several years, we hit the road to Caldwell to see the Eubanks family at the annual Christmas celebration. To be honest, I can't tell you why it's been so long... I know one year we were planning to go and Luke got sick, and the other, who knows. But in 2012 we resolved that we would hit the road unless there was some unmitigated disaster... and thankfully, we were disaster-free! :)

It's a GIRL!

Well, it took us long enough because this little one would not cooperate at previous sonograms, but at long last, we have confirmation... 

Luke's Fifth Santa Visit

Today, we took Luke to see Santa. On our drive to the mall, we got to thinking, and we realized that though Luke is 4, this is his fifth visit to see St. Nick! Let's revisit those images, shall we?