Finally...Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!

We had our first Christmas at home since ever. We had Grandma and Grandpa as well as Steve and Tiki and their kids over for dinner and a small gift exchange. We thought long and hard about what to serve for dinner. We didn't want to do the traditional things, but we wanted to do classy. Pinterest was our best friend but I think it turned out perfectly! Steaks with your choice of gorgonzola cheese sauce or a sauteed mushroom cream sauce. Scalloped roasted potatoes and a delicious winter salad with pomegranate arils, pears and candied walnuts. Tiki brought asparagus and acorn squash and some delicious desserts.

Here is the adult and littlest people gang

Here are our older kiddos. All the kids got the little poppers that are such a tradition from my childhood.

These cute cousins watching a Christmas show together

Grandpa and Everett buddy time

Grandpa with the grandkids. Poor Vedder wasn't feeling well and is literally coughing in every picture I took.

Some snacks while waiting for dinner, or to accompany it or after, or the next day.

I love this picture of Steve and Tiki with their girls, its so cute and those sweaters are HOT!

After Stiki and kids left we opened Christmas Jammies, read our special "Teach the Children" story that reminds us of all the symbols of Christmas and how they come from the birth of Our Savior. We read "Was the Night Before Christmas" Then it was bed time. Peg and Alan stayed longer than they normally do, just to visit, which was really nice.

Christmas Day came at the same time as most other days. Vienna slept in our room, we tried it with Lincoln but was having a tough time, when they are older, we will all sleep together or they will anyway.

Peg and Alan came back early Christmas morning to be with us for gift opening and Santa knew they were going to be here because they had stockings, which was a surprise for them, which was fun for me to do. It took us quite a while to open all our gifts but it was fun! Peggy brought over Jesus' birthday cake. The white icing symbolizes His purity, the chocolate cake represents all the sins of the world he took upon himself, the red candles are the blood he shed for us, the pine branches are ever-green and steadfast as we should always try to be, then of course the star and angel. We sang Him Happy Birthday and ate cake all week.

What our tree looked like with all the gifts in place.

E was still asleep and the kids couldnt wait so I said they could go down to do stocking...

Once he got up he was all about being in his jeep

Our tree was giftless and our home was a cyclone of toys and goodies

That afternoon we took out the sweet new rides and went for a spin, it was a blast!

This is what Christmas morning looked like.

Cookies for Santa, carrots for the reindeer and even a returned note from Santa Himself.

We were very blessed this Christmas Season and we're grateful we were able to relax and enjoy it, because the New Year brings SO many huge changes for our family and they have begun already. Exciting but exhausting.

The rest of December besides Christmas Eve and Day...

Here are a few more things to add to our fun December...even though we didn't have any traveling to do this Christmas it still was really busy.

I got to bake with my little E while Vienna and Lincoln were at school. We made the cookie dough.

I got to bake with my Linc's man while Everett was napping and Vienna was at school. He was very meticulous about those M & M's which is a great quality for baking. We had a good time. What a stud!

Vienna and I got to bake once she was done school, we made gooey carmel popcorn. The air popper was a bit hit for all my kiddos.

Lincoln's preschool is just amazing. I'm so glad Vienna and Lincoln were able to share the same teacher and to build a relationship with her. We are going to miss her terribly next year.

They put on a darling Christmas concert for us.

Cute kids and memories.

Vienna and I went on a Mommy daughter date. We got dinner at a greek restaurant and then went to the Nutcracker, performed by "the big girls" where she took ballet. It was fun to spend time just her and I, but we both have realized that ballet is a bit too long and redundant for our taste. They did an amazing job tho.

We did support them by purchasing a nutcracker

Our ward party took work and the primary was in charge of the entertainment. What we did was perfect and the whole evening was great. Then we went to the illuminary display which was remarkable.

It seems like we always take a trip to Beaverbark to see the reindeer and look around. This year the kids didn't seem too interested in the reindeer, but we still had a nice time.

Everett didn't want to get of this choo-choo

I feel like we actually did a good job this season watching quite a few Christmas movies and I'm so glad. It was the first year we really have. We often would start at dinner time and do this. We also were distracted by the new Star Wars VII release that we also watched all 6 of the previous Star Wars and the kids did great with them. 

This year Walter (our elf) did a great job remembering to be in a different spot, but it was still very exhausting for him to keep it up, so perhaps he will be an even busier elf next year and have to be at the North pole more. Perhaps just a visit or two. One activity he brought was the Santa melty beads and that was a hit!

At Apple Valley they had a fun Christmas party with games, bake-offs and Ugly Christmas sweaters. Amazingly, Mike won the bake off with his White Chocolate Pistachio Cheesecake and got $50, he also won a few other games. I'm so proud of him, considering it was only his second cheesecake ever!

There is a company here in Tri-Cities that does a dancing light display and you tune your radio to listen. It is pretty neat, but the best part about it was the nativity lit up, right across the street. I'm so glad there are so many people out there that remember that Christmas is Christ's Birth celebration.

It's strange, like Everett knew that Christmas was getting closer and he was getting more anxious because he was fine all of December with presents until the 22nd when he decided he couldn't take it anymore and opened 5 presents. What a little stinker right!

There's the ugly sweater for his work party.

Vienna and I did our very first set of Jamberry nails and I was so impressed, mine stayed for 3 weeks!

Our sweet little boy made a first for us...

Having had 3 kids int he same crib, you think you've seen it all, but nope. Everett was fighting a nap one afternoon and I went in to see why and he scared the be-jeepers out of me b/c he was up standing on his changing table playing with the stuff on his shelf. He startled me and that startled him, he started crying and this was the solution...lots of pillows bungy corded...we can no longer use the changing table, but he can't get out either. My oh my kiddo!

Vienna was also lucky enough to have her first sleepover with her cousins. She has been asking me for ages and finally it happened. They did really well according to Tiki. 

Volunteering in Vienna's class is always so much fun! I get to meet her friends and see her interact. I loved making the finger print christmas lights with them and watching them decorate their sugar cookies. We're so grateful for Vienna's wonderful, amazing, supportive Kindergarten teacher Ms. Brantley, we will miss her terribly next year as well.

Of course cold weather makes us get creative with our indoor time and boy do my boys love the indoor playground area and gymnastics place. I sure hope spokane has something like that.

Next in line...Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!

More Catching Up!

I guess its to be expected that when you try to catch up most of November on December 22nd that you'll be playing catch up for December too. However I didn't think it would take this long. Before I get too far behind I thought I'd do something and even though this is just the first bit of December, at least its something and I know I will get caught up one of these days, but probably not for a few months. Either way, I'm doing it and hopefully it will mean something for my posterity. Our Christmas season began with Grandma and Grandpa's Party, it was so early it wasn't even in December yet, but it was a blast! I have to hand it to them, they spent a ton of time making a life size board game with goodies and gifts along the way. What could be more fun...

Here we are at the beginning, they all have their goody bags for their loot!

everyone got a turn to roll the dice and move up that many steps

The best part was the stairs being turned into a slide and even all the adults did it. Some of us were much sorer than others, but at least we were all good sports.

The kids helped decorate the tree behind us with ornaments of everyone in our family. Too bad Mark and Barb and family couldnt actually be with us, but they were there in image and spirit.

This was a giant poster puzzle that the kids had to assemble as an activity as well and all the family is in it too, if you look closely.

These are my sweet nieces and nephew. What cuties eh.

We all got spoiled and ate more than our fair share of goodies and snacks. 

So far this winter we have had WAY more snow than last winter and so we were lucky enough to welcome a teeny tiny frosty into the family for about 24hrs (if we were lucky) but at least we got to do that.

Oh and of course we had to make snow cones out of the fresh fallen snow. They had a blast doing that.

Santa pictures are always fun and Home Depot is the place to do it!

Vienna has been very lucky this year to be apart of a children's singing group called "Music Notes" and she was even more lucky enough to perform on stage with the Tri-Cities Youth Choir called Forte. I really had NO idea what we were getting ourselves into, but it was by far my favorite show I've seen in a while. I was very impressed and pleasantly surprised, this is much more my thing than ballet.

Mike celebrated his 31st B-day on the 7th. What a baby! We got to go out for ice cream a Dairy Queen with the kiddos, which they loved...of course.

Mike and I were able to keep up our new tradition (hopefully) of going to Leavenworth for a night. It's such a fun little town and nice to spend a little alone time. We couldn't do it without Peg and Alan though.

Mike's Co-workers also celebrated a bit for him, which was a nice surprise.

Aren't these the cutest Christmas shirt boys you ever did see. Man I love those smiles.

I always get excited to decorate for Christmas, but it takes over our home, which I love but that process takes time. The ambiance and magic of Christmas is so memorable and I want my children to have that just as I did growing up.

Last year Peggy had the kids help her with a little homemade Christmas gift and this year she did too. The biggest (pink/purple) one is Viennas, of course. Then the blue one is Lincoln's and the green teeny one is Everett's. Aren't they so cute. They have miniature ornaments and everything. I'm sure its lots of work for Peggy, but they are such fun gifts to receive.

My sweet little Lincoln-elf sure is growing up big. I love seeing the glimpes of my little guy, but they are getting few and far between.

Daddy still tries to have a little beginner lesson with his Nenna girl every now and then and she seems to really enjoy it, I hope that is true when she starts real lessons.

I've still got much more to catch up on, but no matter when I make time, I'm always grateful I did (even though its 1am and I have to work tomorrow) because it allows me a chance to step back, reflect and be reminded that even though day to day life is usually exhausting, and can be challenging there is still always so much to be thankful for and too many blessings to count. 

To be continued....soon....