A Dunklee Family Christmas

Welcome to a Dunklee Family Christmoose!

Christmas 2009 was a fun time for our family! We started new traditions and revisited old ones. Most of December was spent playing with friends and getting ready for the big day. As always, Santa was on top of everything and everybody got exactly what they wanted. Unless of course you're Julee and you ask for a laptop (last time we checked Santa did not have money trees growing in the North Pole); but she still made out okay. Overall, we are very blessed and grateful to spend time together as a family and with great friends. The only thing missing was all of you!

Making gingerbread houses is a sometimes tradition. We had so much fun I'm sure we'll do it again next year!

Alexis hard at work on her gingerbread house

Julee working on her thatched roof look

The chaos that was gingerbread houses

All the finished products

A new tradition was the Capital Holiday Lights in Washington Park. It is a huge light display sponsored by different businesses around the city. After you drive through to see the lights you can buy treats and crafts in Santa's Workshop. This is a definite must for next year!
A gingerbread house

An enchanted castle

Santa's Toy Land

And the craziest thing ever - they had these 2 rides operating by Santa's Workshop. One was a carousel and the other this lift that circles you around in the air. Daredevil Lekkis just HAD to go on it. Keep in mind that it's pitch black and all of 14 degrees outside, probably less with the wind chill! Poor thing was a popsicle by the time she was finished but she said it was definitely worth it.

It's just not Christmas unless we make Grandma's famous cut-out sugar cookies. The best part of it this year was both girls were big enough to do it themselves. I did not roll or press one bit of dough!

I didn't get off so easy though - I think the girls frosted about 5 cookies and left the rest for mom and dad.

An experimental tradition....Rick wanted to make a Yule Log this year - don't ask me why. So we tried it and it actually turned out pretty good. We are already thinking of ways to perfect it for next year! It tasted yummy too!

And of course, it's just not Christmas Eve unless you get new jammies!

A true personality pose

Cookies and egg nog for Santa (I hope Santa didn't get too sick-that was a big mug of egg nog and lots of cookies)

The final scene after Santa's visit

Christmas morning began with a very excited 9-year old jumping on our bed yelling "Santa came Santa came!" Fortunately it was 8am and not 530. When we went to tell the 12-year old that Santa came, her reply was "Can I get 15 more minutes?" Typical huh?

Checking out the stockings

Lots of candy and fun treats

Opening presents

Julee excited to see she got Twilight on DVD

Sweet! A new MP3 player!

Wait! I think it's.....Legos.

It IS Legos!

A New Moon calendar (do we see a theme here?)

And....more Legos!

Julee sporting her new MP3 player as she slaves (her words not mine)
for her Christmas dinner.

MMMM...let's eat! Notice the good china made it to the table this year. Thanks Rick for doing all the dishes after dinner!

Christmas evening Rick and Alexis set up a Lego Troll vs Knight War on the dining room table, complete with 'water' and 'terrain'. It was quite a battle!

The new troll warship Alexis got on Christmas morning

Preparing for battle

Today's headline: Mom tortures 2 children as she makes them pose for pictures in their church clothes AFTER we got home from church the Sunday after Christmas!

Whine and complain? Not these angelic faces?

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!