happy christmas.

So I've been collecting Lego snowman and assorted Christmas sets since I was in high school. I like the old original santas that had the cute faces with just two eyes and a nose -

So my collection is pretty cool and a few years ago my mom and I began the tradition of trading Lego Christmas sets with each other which has been fun. Perusing Ebay this year for a set to get for her - since I couldn't find any in stores and even lego.com was out of stock on them, I found the santa in the chimney set from 1991 along with two 'limited edition' sets from this year I didn't even know existed (two sections of a living room - one with a chimney and one with a Christmas tree - that connect together).

And Mom had some fun with wrapping hers to me -

Cute. Julian thought it was hilarious.

I had even finished the fireplace and new hearth as planned just in time for Christmas -

And then we started unwrapping everything -

Julian was clearly über-excited about the camera bag that I got for him that he, well, had asked for -

I was excited about the awesome Christmas candle from Katie!

And finally I got a kind-of-smile out of Julian wearing a ginormous bow -

Katie played along much better -

But then we went outside into the lovely Seattle rain-on-Christmas so Julian could give his new bike from Santa a try -

And then finally - a real smile!