Christmas in Elkhart

Christmas with the Carnes-es was celebrated this year on Christmas Eve. Every year we take a picture like this, to make sure that I'm still the shortest - lucky me. We started the day off right with breakfast at Perkins in Elkhart (lunch anytime). It was then that we broke the baby news to the family. It was really great to see everyone's reaction in person. I think Mom and Dad are excited about grandkid #4, and by the time he or she is here they should be very experienced at spoiling them :)
Chase is very thoughtful. There was a gift under the tree marked "To: Chuck and Jill, From: Chase". Apparently he went to the mall with Dad and picked up a 2006 Shelties calendar. What a nice little dog.
These pictures are always fun to look at in the coming years. Next Christmas will bring some more human kids (we're holding Chase since he's all we got so far). Pictured here are, from left to right: Kayla Carnes, Brandi Carnes, Chris Carnes, Zack Carnes, Chase Robin Hood Prince of Theives III Carnes (seriously - we have the papers), Chuck Carnes, Jill Carnes, Meredithe Carnes, Brenna Carnes and Randy Carnes. I guess one nice thing about having 3 sons is that the last names are easy to remember.

Ah yes, my 8th birthday cake (actually a group of 2 and a group of 6 candles - to make 26, get it?). Since my birthday is December 27th, and we would be back in Indy then, we celebrated with cake and some gifts. I was able to get all of the candles blown out - no trick ones this year.