Merry Christmas-Dunow Style.

We are incredibly blessed to have the Porter family in our lives. The two giants on the ends of the sofa?

They have GROWN up together.

It has become a tradition to go over to their house and eat, play and visit on Christmas Eve.
Can you imagine what it's like with all these kiddo's talking at once?
It's loud.
We wouldn't want it any other way.

I wanted to take a picture of each one of the kids in front of our sad looking tree.
Olivia is always posing.

Soren is all decked out in his daily cowboy gear.

Ella, with her bright sunny smile.

Our oldest daughter Anna who just wanted to be done with it.

Logan is thinking how good looking he is.

Now how good looking are you know Logan?

Christmas morning all the kids come into my room and wait to go out.

Number 1 is a little cranky.

I love Soren's expression.

Priceless.

We have had a wonderful Christmas season surrounded by our friends who have become our family here.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Decking the Dunow Halls.

This is our Christmas tree this year. Olivia and Soren seem to always be rearranging it and moving things around. It has tipped over a few times too.

Imagine that with 5 kids and 3 dogs always running through the house and jumping over furniture.

These are the lamps that Troy and I made. I love them because I can change the decorations inside of them for the seasons.

I have enjoyed decorating the house this year. The only complaint is all the dust.

New Mexico has been terribly dry this year.

That means more dusting for me, except I just pretend it isn't there.

So just ignore the 4 inches of dust on everything.

As most of you know, I have an addiction to old books.

I saw this tree on a blog and tried to do it myself.

I love it.

Some don't.( I won't name names) ANDREW MEYER.


More pictures are coming.

Enjoy your day.

I definitely will. I made wassail and the house smells fantastic.

Christmas day.

Last night we walked to streets of an old neighborhood where Andy had grown up. Andy is our friend that is spending Christmas with us this year. It was very cold out and the wind was blowing. Olivia was not very happy.

The streets were lined with luminarias and lights. It was beautiful!

This morning the kids woke us up around 5:30 am. We mad them wait it out in my room for a while. The kids and the dogs all crowded up on my bed and had a wrestling match.

We were waiting on Andy.

Who is that strange man in my bed? Oh, it's just Andy trying to go back to sleep because he thinks it's way to early to be getting up.

The kids all line up to go out to the tree.

Olivia opening up some of her gifts.

Daddy and Olivia playing around.

Troy got me a turquoise ring. I have been wanting one for a really long time. I just love turquoise. I have always liked it but it wasn't until I moved to New Mexico that I fell in love with the art of it. I would love some really big chunky pieces next Honey. Hint, hint. My nails look horrible, I tried to paint them red for Christmas my self. Note to self, let the professionals handle it next time.

Oh' little town of Olivia.

This week I set up our little Christmas village. We have picked up pieces here and there over the years. Olivia pulls up a chair to the counter and will stand there for the longest time singing or just playing make believe with it. I will listen to her while I am cooking of cleaning up and the things she comes up with is just adorable.

I hope that this is something that she remembers about Christmas when she grows up. I remember when I was about her age and a little older that I would play with the Jesus from the nativity set the my family had. It was so tiny that it would fit in the palm of my hand. I would take a tissue and wrap it up like a real baby. This poor Baby Jesus. It had chipped feet and hands by the time I grew up. What I think is wonderful about it is that my Mom would let me hold him. That is one of my favorite Christmas memories.

Don't you dare touch that puzzle!

It is our tradition every year for Troy and I to do a puzzle on Christmas. We stay in our jammies and veg. Of course it is always a challenge to get the kids from destroying it every few minutes. There are always a lot of little fingers wanting to "help". We finished the day after Christmas because it was getting to difficult to hold off children.