I've spent the last hour bringing Christmas photos into my Memory Manager (have I told you recently how much I love this program--well I do!!); labeling all of the photos for proper identification of Goldie and Virginia, starring which ones will be perfect for the kids' albums, and reliving every moment of the last week. Then I started picking out photos to resize for the blog. I could have chosen so many of Virginia and Goldie unwrapping gifts bit by bit. Or Henry helping Grandpa McNutt assemble grocery carts, baby strollers, and work benches. Or the 13-year-old yellow lab that slept through all of the commotion in the middle of the living room floor. It made me sad to think how old she is getting. But here are a few of my favorite holiday photos to add to the album.

Virginia playing fireman


Goldie, left, Virginia, right

The captions for this photo are endless.


Henry doing serious work.



Scott, Al, Jeff, Kyle, and Brett

On Friday between all of the festivities, our friend Al and his three sons went pheasant hunting with Jeff. Brett is the UNI football player that Henry admires so much. Kyle is the father of Henry's friend Cameron. They had a great day hunting. It was foggy, but I thought it made the backdrop to the guys perfect.

And, then there was my favorite holiday moment. The frosting of the Christmas bread. Christmas would not be the same without Mom's Christmas bread. I love it. Our McNutt Christmas got messed up because of weather and sick girls (we sadly never did get to see my brother and his family). On Sunday, my parents came to our house loaded with our traditional Christmas dinner of chicken and biscuits, lefse, and Christmas bread. Mom had put the bread in the freezer and brought the frosting and pecans to put on top at our house. Well before she could blink, she had help!


Virginia, left, Henry, Goldie, right, and Grandma McNutt




Virginia, looking the other way, Henry, and Goldie

All three kids took this job very seriously. Goldie had the knife spreading frosting as fast as she could. Note the frosting on her arm, too. Even after Henry dumped the pecans on the top and smashed them down with his entire hand, Goldie still had her knife up in the frosting. And, let me tell you that we all loved eating it as much as they loved frosting it.