Christmas!

We started out the week of Christmas with a birthday party and a family Christmas party at Jen's house.  We did our traditional white elephant gifts for the adults, and dollar store gifts for the kids.  Jim and Lynnette scored big this year!  They both got our gifts.  Winners!

 Our useless, I mean, useful, loot.

 The kids working hard for those dollar store items.

 A fat naked baby.  Cutest.

 Olivia's birthday part of the celebration.

My parents came up for the week and rotated around between all our houses.  We had them over on Tuesday night and Wednesday, so we enjoyed a little bowling with Grandpa and Grandma.

It was a Christmas Miracle because I had an awesome game of bowling.  Madge is my bowling name, in case you were wondering which awesome score was mine.

Christmas Eve always starts out with our Bethlehem dinner.  Dustin took the kids to buy some authentic Bethlehem rotisserie chicken from Smiths, while Grandma and I transformed the house by placing blankets on the floor and couch, and stringing Christmas lights all around.  As the kids came in, I helped them each into a costume and we started right into Bethlehem while we acted out the Nativity.

 Then we ate using only our hands, and sitting on the floor.  We eat yummy things like fruit, crackers and cheese, carrot sticks with ranch, rolls and chicken.  And, of course, sparkling cider in fancy glasses.

After dinner, we opened our pj presents and then drove around to find fun Christmas lights.  By the time we got home, it was time to put out cookies for Santa and hit the hay.  And, it came none to soon for these excited, hyper children.  They were ready for it to be bedtime at 7:00.  It is a good thing we didn't put them to bed that early because they were way too excited to sleep.  Maren came out at 11 PM, because she couldn't sleep.  Ahh, I remember those days.  Last year.  This year, I was very tired.

Christmas morning magic.  It is still dark because it is 6 AM.  On the dot.

 Grant was very excited about his helicopter.

 Loved this response.

 Gifts from Jen's family.

 Homemade puzzles with their picture on it, from Grandpa and Grandma.  So fun!

 A watch, also from Grandpa and Grandma.  And it even lights up!

 These are the gifts the kids made each other.  This is another favorite tradition.  We draw names among the siblings, and they make a gift for that person.  They are always so creative with what they make each other.  This year, Grant puff painted Avery some socks, Ryan made Maren a chalkboard for her room, Maren sewed Grant a pillow case to match his blanket that Avery made him a few years ago, and Avery made Ryan a fun game with nails and rubber bands.

 It looks like a bomb went off.  A bomb filled with Christmas loot.

 New doll clothes from Grandma Lana.

And the gifts:

If it seems like a lot, well, it is.  Between us, Santa, Grandparents, relatives, and a generous grandmotherly neighbor, my kids are spoiled.  It was a wonderful, merry Christmas!

So Much Going On In December

December has flown by.  That is probably because we have been so crazy busy around here.  We have had stuff almost every night of the month!  Here are some of the fun things we have done.

Maren had a choir concert.  She does such a great job in her choir!

 Gramma Lana moved out last weekend, after living with us for four months.  While she was still at our house, we went to a Gingerbread Festival.

 It was pretty fun.  We got to see the cool houses, decorate cookies, visit Santa and buy an unhealthy amount of candy for only $3.00!  How could we pass that up?! (said my family).

 We also made it to Temple Square and Citi Creek to see the lights.

 One afternoon we met Dustin's aunt and cousin at the Festival of Trees.  It was fun to see Rae Louise and Michelle for a little bit.

 

We had our ward party and another visit with Santa.  I had to pretty much beg my kids to sit on his lap so I could get a picture.  What happened to my little kids?! 

It snowed almost 2 feet this week!  The kids have played in it every day since then.  We have a pretty cool sledding track in our backyard, thanks to Dustin and Ryan.

We had Abi and Lili here to play one day and we played in the snow for a few hours.  It happened to be a pretty warm day, so we weren't even cold!  You can see in the pictures that Maren is sledding in a jacket.

 Avery had her first orchestra concert of the year.  She does a wonderful job on the violin!

 Both boys lost a tooth tonight.  Grant couldn't stop talking because he liked the feel of that front tooth being gone.  Pretty cute.

Only 5 more days until Christmas!  I can't believe that it is nearly here!  I just want this week to crawl by.  But there probably isn't a lot of hope for that.  Oh well.  I'm sure we will just pack it all in and enjoy it.  Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving this year we had a much needed rest at my Grandpa's farm in Idaho.  It was lovely.  We left early to avoid the snowstorm, and so we got an extra day there to relax and play.  There was more snow there than we've seen yet this year!  The kids played in the snow for three days in a row.  I made it out for one of those days...  It was SO cold!

 I had a good excuse for not playing in the snow the second day.  Someone's got to cook that Turkey!

 And, of course, that was the tractor sled pulling day.

There was even an oompa loompa there!

 We played a lot of pool while we were there,

 We painted ornaments one night (a family tradition).

The finished products.

 We had an a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner.  There were a lot of us there: Chad and his family all came down from Seattle, us, Lynnette's family and my parents.

Grandpa was very patient with the kids, noise and mess.

 It was my birthday!  I picked out my own ice cream cake and had them write "Happy Birthday Carolyn".  Kind of funny to do that for yourself.  But, Lynnette was with me and she insisted.  Plus, I've never had an ice cream cake for my birthday!

It was a lovely long weekend, with much to be thankful for!