Christmas Morning at Jeff's

We met Jeff and family at Northshore Church in Slidell for their 9am Christmas morning service. The church was packed out with a delightful collection of young families with their children along with their older members whom we have come to know over the past several years. After the service we went to Jeff's for a family exchange of gifts.

Jordan, Elyse and Ashleigh by their Christmas tree as we prepare to open gifts. We had already been shown the major Santa Claus gift to the girls: a fine Yamaha keyboard. All three girls had enjoyed the piano when they were at our house at Thanksgiving.

Jordan, Elyse, Ashleigh, Brenda and Rod. We had to get a shot of the girls with Grandma and Granddad.

It was good to get to spend a little time with Ashleigh, the college girl home from Tulane. Here, the main idea was that Rod wanted to be pictured with two of the beautiful women in his life.

We enjoyed the gift exchange with the girls, but we didn't cover up the floor with gifts as usual. The girls preferred to do their own shopping, so the gifts were mostly cash or gift cards.

The girls pose with their gifts from Aunt Sherry, going along with their preference for cash or gift cards. But Sherry embedded these small packages inside larger gift to add an element of mystery. I noted the drawing of elephants that Ashleigh had done and it reminded me of the "Parade of Elephants" we had seen in Arches National Park.

Uncle Mark had sent generous cash gifts to the girls, so we hid the cash in these hollow ornaments and hung them on the Christmas tree.

One of Ashleigh's stocking presents was a kale plant which wouldn't fit in a stocking. Part of the kidding was that this was a plant she couldn't kill by keeping it in her room at Tulane. There was also the line that in desperation, she could eat it. Ashleigh models different responses to a gift of a kale plant. My favorite was "contemplate the kale" at right.