when we opened our advent calendar for december 17th, we found a slip of paper telling us that this was the day to ride the walkersville southern railroad’s santa train! hooray! we missed the train last year, and couldn’t wait to see the big guy again this year…

we had a nice, long scenic ride before santa came and sat down next to us!

when the big guy finally arrived, the kids were pretty shy. after some prompting, jackson was able to tell him a few things from his list. and give him a hug. phoebe? none of the above.

hooray for the walkersville southern! we’ll be back for another excursion soon!!

shortly after arriving home from our whirlwind tour of eastern pennsylvania, our family’s portable hard drive took a turn for the worse and we thought all (meaning our last 6 years’ worth of personal images and videos) was lost. after a few friends tried to help out, we turned to some pros. and voila! we got everything back, including all our videos! yay!

so, here it is, our long overdue post on our fun times in doylestown during the holidays!

presents, presents, cute baby girls and snow!

we enjoyed ourselves for almost a whole week in d-town, meeting our newest niece, ginger miriam, having a date night with matt and naomi (way too much fun, needs to be done more often) and just plain hanging out with grandma and grandpa. along the way we took a few pics, but for the most part we just enjoyed everyone’s company. looking forward to a planned trip out west to see more of the idaho spences soon!

look what santa brought jackson… a big kid bike! super cool, dude!

the girls and their aprons from jan.

it’s the crazy hat family!

got your hands full there, matt!

the girls loved taking baths together! lots of splashing all around!

jackson thought the girls were wacky!

naomi trying to read the girls a story, but there was just too much squirming!

ginger is a master of the serious stare. but get her started on laughing or talking and watch out! she’s a riot!

she’s not a fan of the hugs, phoebe.

phoebe and daddy had fun in the snow…

…and big brother jackson loved it, too!

the second leg of christmas 2009 was spent in doylestown, with the spences. we arrived late on christmas eve, just before santa paid a visit. we had just enough time to write out our note to santa and leave him milk and cookies, and carrots for his reindeer in our new plate set (thanks aunt amy and uncle nick!).

it was a special year at the spence house for christmas, as dan, cassie, and alex white joined us to celebrate the holiday for the first time in many years. we were all so glad that they could be there, so we marked the occasion with a big family photo.

we all woke up early to open our presents from santa. phoebe seems really excited about that bib she got!

jackson could hardly believe his pile of presents! what was in that giant box?? (a playmobil circus tent, just what he asked for!)

aunt naomi was more than happy to pal around with phoebe for the weekend. they’d never met before, but were fast friends!

despite the sour expression, jackson did love all his presents this year!

jackson didn’t really want to open any other presents once grandpa and daddy got the circus tent set up.

cassie and alex enjoyed the show, even though they had to wake up early to see it!

matt had a good time buying presents for dan. driving goggles? where does he find this stuff??

grandpa liked his new shirt (“Grandpa since 2006″) — he plans to wear it in florida.

portrait time again! dave, jackson, molly, kurt, phoebe, marcia, matt and naomi

it’s always great to have susan and her mom, chris, over for christmas dinner. the ladies looked lovely yet again!

nine years ago (christmas 2000) we took a photo similar to this one of all the babcock grandchildren. and my, how they have grown since then (see original photo below)!

(clockwise from top center in both photos) alexander, matthew, daniel, david and cassandra

many of you have watched and enjoyed the santa train video dave posted a few weeks ago. we wanted to upload some nice still images we took that day as well. for background info … dave, molly, jackson, and phoebe climbed aboard the walkersville southern railroad’s santa train on dec. 12. it was a cold but clear day — perfect for a scenic ride through the countryside.

jackson isn’t big on talking to unfamiliar people. and when we walked past santa at a shop this year, he said he didn’t want to talk to him. ever.  so molly figured we should bring the letter jackson wrote and he could show it to santa on the train if he didn’t feel like talking…

jackson got warmed up when the conductor, george wireman, paid us a visit to collect our tickets. we loved him! he visited every seat, and insisted on a photo with all the children. he even showed us his cool train-engraved pocket watch!

after that, we waited… and waited… for the big guy…

phoebe was a very patient traveler

finally, jackson spotted st. nick! he told molly she’d better move off the seat so santa could sit down and talk to him!

and sit down he did… jackson managed to not only talk to santa, but also give him a big hug! dave and molly couldn’t stop smiling in disbelief.

it must have been something about being aboard a train, because jackson did NOT want to cooperate with taking this picture, once we disembarked. ah, the mind of a 3 year old!

at first we thought maybe a christmas portrait session wasn’t going to happen this year. dave’s been so busy with wedding work, we’ve all been sick on and off, and the days were speeding by. but leave it to amy raab to come to the rescue! she offered her studio — out of the blue studio in annapolis — for an impromptu session on the first saturday of december. hurrah!

this photo is INSANE. so many people have commented that it belongs in a magazine, and we agree. amy captured an awesome moment here — phoebe’s crossed legs and cute little smile were totally unplanned, as was jackson holding his sister’s hand. gorgeous! dave ordered a gigantic print of this for me for christmas, and I know I will cherish it for a long, long time.

jackson couldn’t get enough of this classic-looking tricycle. he’d actually never ridden one before, but he jumped on and started pedaling like a pro. it was difficult to get him off of it!

big thanks to molly’s sister, lynne, who got the kids both sets of outfits you see in these pictures. she has a knack for finding great clothes that look super on jackson and phoebe.

dave and molly didn’t plan to get in on the portraits too, but we don’t have many opportunities for a nice shot of all four of us together! so, that’s how we ended up with this “hat family” shot!