{christmas in three parts} Christmas Morning

I love spending Christmas morning at my parents' house.  We exchange gifts, and eat too much breakfast, and talk too loud, and interrupt each other too much, and build too hot a fire in the wood stove.  We always have fried bread dough dipped in sugar & cinnamon when it's hot from the pan.  Our morning visit never lasts long enough because we all have other dinners and gatherings to attend, but those few hours make me feel young and carefree again.

We let Laci open one gift before breakfast, so she'd stop getting into all the other presents.  It was a picnic set from Aunty Kristina with little metal cups and plates.  She played with it all through breakfast (I could actually eat my food while it was hot), and would have been more than content if that had been her only gift for the day.  Now, over a week later, this toy is still the first one she plays with in the mornings.

**David & Beth**

**Myles & Kristina**

Can you feel the love?

**Grammy & Papa**

(and spilled milk on the counter behind them,

which was so much more interesting than looking at the camera)

I love my family.