Monday, December 28, 2009

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, everyone! We hope you had a wonderful celebration of Christ's birth. We enjoyed our leisurely family Christmas, but certainly did miss our extended family who were gathering in Colorado. We love you all! Since we couldn't share the days with you, we thought we'd share lots of pictures.


Kate decorating Daddy's Christmas cookies. (Thanks to Gram and Great Gramie for sending us so many yummy cookies!)

We started a new tradition of making cupcakes to celebrate Jesus' birthday. Check out Kate helping Daddy decorate them. Look very closely at the cupcake.

Continuing a Minnery tradition, we went out to breakfast on Christmas Eve morning. Not up a mountain (as the tradition goes) but to the beach! Well, nearby the beach. (By the way, Ellie has totally perfected the special look. If you went to college with me, you know what I'm talking about.)


After breakfast, we decided to drive around the peninsula. Here we are on Carmel Beach.



And here's Carmel Beach looking over to Pebble Beach. What a gorgeous day and view!


Getting ready to go to church at the Post Chapel, Christmas Eve. Thanks Great Grandma Doris for the girl's Christmas dresses.


A rare photo op with all three girls smiling...at the same time, that is.


Christmas morning--Happy Birthday, Jesus!


Ellie wanted in on the cupcake action. Sorry, Ells. Maybe next year!
Thank you so much to all our wonderful family members who took the time to send gifts to the girls. Here is Kate with the amazing matching game Gram made for her. Say hi to Uncle Evan!

Ellie, sweetly oblivious, sitting in the middle of her present pile before she headed off for her nap.


The Christmas carnage when opening was complete.


And I thought we'd end with a very typical moment in the Luminati household. Ellie, looking sweet and cute as ever. Kate, also sweet and cute but totally a blur, on the move, heavily involved with princess-play. Just wait--Ellie is very close to crawling and those princesses will need protection from her grabby little hands. Thanks to Great-Gramie and Great Papa for the matching shirts.

Again, we really felt so blessed to be thought of and remembered by so many family members who were not present with us. Thank you so much!!

4 comments:

beth and melinda said...

what wonderful pics!
we miss you

Anonymous said...

This is the moment we have been waiting for at Pinewood!! Thank you for sharing so many wonderful photos of your Christmas. We sure missed you ALL, but LOVE seeing the beginnings of your own traditions! Breakfast at the beach, WOW! So glad you do the Jesus cupcakes...we see that purple! Love each and every photo. Jon, what a beautiful smiling shot of your girls. We sooo look forward to coming soon to be with you all. Maybe next Christmas, you will be travelling this way. Love you to the moon and back...Gram + Pops

Anonymous said...

Looks like it was a great Christmas! What beautiful pictures of everyone! How could those girls get any cuter? They did!
Love and hugs, The Southern Beach Folks

Shari Baker said...

Kate looks so thrilled to be decorating cupcakes! What great pictures. And wow, I thought I had the special look down, but I have been trumped!