Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Christmas 2010


Have you ever had Blogger arrange the pictures in a post like this? ***I have been trying to fix this for an hour and am going to give up...any suggestions? It looks messed up, but I'll go with it...WARNING: this will be photo overload for most of you...I imagine Grandma Kathie will be the only blog follower that will actually browse through so many pictures of our holiday fun.


Christmas Eve was spent with Doug's family. We spent the day together and ended the night going to church as a family.




Grandpa Jerry trying our favorite cookie of the season...a chocolate covered Nutter Butter shaped like a reindeer. They were so cute.




The boys got new snowball guns. Pretty cool. These are pretty accurate and can launch snowballs really far!




It wouldn't be Christmas Eve if Uncle Dave didn't fall asleep in the "comfy chair." He seriously does this EVERY year no matter what. The funny thing is, this picture was probably taken about 2:00 in the afternoon.





Christmas Eve BINGO game. Anyone want to trade a pack of candy canes for a giant Hershey bar?






















We had a birthday cake for Baby Jesus. Grace was pretty excited to put on her "fancy" silver dress for church.





















Alyssa and her new book. Regardless of how you feel about politics, this is a great book for children. Alyssa was a good sport and understood that it was a good book for teenagers too :)














After church, the kids exchanged gifts that they had for each other. Bryce was very excited that Drew gave him a new (hand me down) ipod and was excited to learn that it was loaded up with all sorts of new music!















My favorite kind of gift...the kind the kids make at school and bring home in a cute paper sack wrapping. Bryce made me this adorable ornament.









Everyone in their new Christmas pajamas. They all get a new book and pair of jammies on Christmas Eve.















Santa kept his promise and brought Grace a new baby! She was so excited. What a cute baby too.



































Legos for Bryce.












New Packer jerseys. The Packers just need to win one more game to have a chance for the playoffs!












The perfect game for the girl who requests ice cream EVERY day (all day long!).














Another cool football jersey for Drew.












Alyssa and her new NOOK. It is so cool! I can even check blogs on it!!!
























I was so proud of my kids. They were so grateful and expressed thanks for every single present they got. It was music to my ears to hear them give thanks whenever they opened a new gift. Even on Christmas Eve, this is the note they left for Santa on his mug of milk...









Grace's smile made all of the shopping, wrapping, cleaning, cooking, and hosting worth it! Christmas day was spent with my family...time to regroup, clean up a little and get ready for the second group to arrive!













Four girls trying to figure out how to use a 3 year old's computer...my husband thought this was a riot and took a picture.



































New "tents/forts/houses" were a hit.























What? It's been a long day...(really sparkling grape juice at the "kids table").
Another cool doll! Christmas is awesome!
The big girls with their new Snuggies.
Uncle Dave (a different Uncle Dave) bonded with Grace via his iphone. Here he is teaching her how to play Angry Birds. Nice. They are best friends now.
The day after Christmas, Grace decided to show everyone (we had overnight guests) her traditional Ethiopian clothes.
Grace and her buddy Uncle Dave playing keep away from cousin Tyler.

The fun continued with the left over gift boxes....yup...the boxes are almost always more fun than the gifts. Notice Grace's blue eye shadow? We have to watch her like a hawk. This is her latest trick. We will be getting ready to go somewhere and wham! She has on eye shadow...don't ask why we have blue eye shadow...no, it's not mine, it's from her new "play" make up.
And here is Grace last night. She is so tired from all of the fun. She asked to use Doug's phone to play a game (thanks again Uncle Dave), and she fell right asleep on the floor.

Today, the big kids went skiing with Doug and I took the younger kids bowling. Grace thought is was fun, but much harder than Wii bolwing. She was a good sport :)








So...as you can see we have been very busy. We are so lucky to have time to relax and enjoy each other this week. I absolutely LOVE the week between Christmas and New Year's Day. We spend time hanging out, playing with new toys, sleeping in and eating way too many goodies. Soon enough it will be time to take down the tree and get back in our usual busy routine.

Hope you are enjoying your winter break as well!

Friday, December 24, 2010

Merry Christmas 2010

Merry Christmas 2010!



(...the orange "m" does not appear on our printed card)
Wishing you the love, peace, and joy that the true meaning of Christmas brings.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

The Best Christmas Gift Ever

***Pause the music at the bottom of our blog before watching***

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Annual Gingerbread House Party

We are so lucky to live in a neighborhood with great friends and wonderful families. Every year we get together for a "gingerbread house party." The kids look forward to the party and try to think of creative ways to decorate our "house." Our gang before we are covered in frosting and sick to our stomachs from eating too much sugar. Drew refuses to wear anything warm these days. Bonnie will understand...she has a son who honors a similar dress code.

Grace and her friend Kemily.

OK...here we go. We tried to explain to Grace how this all works. First we frost the house with Miss Lori's super glue-type frosting. Alyssa (first born and very type A) usually gets annoyed with the little ones sticking candy all over the house in random places. This year, she was given half the roof to do all on her own.
Grace was beside herself with all of the bowls of sugary treats laid out in front of her. She was so excited to decorate AND eat. It went something like, "one for the house, one for me..."



There are ten families that made houses this year (Thanks for all of your hard work making our houses Lori!!!), so it is always cool to wander around and get decorating ideas from the other families. One family added a deck to their house. Another had a gingerbread graveyard (a little morbid for me), and another had a really cute ice rink in their house's backyard. I loved the addition of the cute Peep reindeer this year!
Grace was my last kid decorating this year. She did not want to stop until every inch of frosting had a piece of candy on it.

Our house turned out great. Now we display the house on our piano (out of reach from our crazy, poorly trained dog who would eat the whole thing if he could get to it). On New Year's Day the kids get to go at it and eat whatever they want from it (usually requires some tools to break the house and pry off the candy)
Hope you have a great day!
Four more days until Christmas!!!! Bryce is so excited he is having trouble falling asleep...love it!