christmas 2012

quite possibly the best thing about living in california is living close to family, especially so around the holidays where the only travel required is as few hours by car. this year the whole shafer family gathered at john and kristens beautiful new big house in folsom for christmas. it's always fun getting these three rascals together. grandma provided some fun christmas crafts. 

 on christmas eve we visited a fantastic train museum in downtown sacramento.

in the evening we had the traditional ham dinner and program. grandma had lots of surprises, my favorite being the felt santa beards! william would have nothing to do with them, but ben looked handsome as santa.

of course christmas morning was the highlight. we started with a nice fire and checking out the stockings. lucy was there the whole time too, she just doesn't demand as much attention.

then onto presents! and a lot of presents there were. william asked for a fire truck from santa and he got one! along with a fireman hat.

grandpa made chairs for all the boys. it was just what i wanted! everyone was spoiled, it was a great morning. it was a struggle to get william to open all his gifts there were so many new toys to play with. 

 christmas really is more fun with kids. happy christmas!