Wow, it’s January already! I had every intention of sharing these a little closer to Christmas, but time got away from me. The weekend before Christmas we spent some time with Andy’s parents and Jared and Becky’s family. The weekend after Christmas we spent with my mom, Paul and Justin and Kate’s family. In between we had our Christmas at the house (and we got to skype with my dad, Leslie and Christopher in Hawaii).
Christmas Eve we went to the candlelight service at our new church. Grainy pictures, it was dark! Somehow Andy ended up with all our candles by the end.
Somewhere in 10 years of marriage, colored lights took over our house. Don’t tell Andy, but I kind of like them now :)
Christmas morning!
Winning the lamest parents ever award, we got Ben a booster seat for Christmas. He’s 6 and was still in a 5 point harness (nothing wrong with that, it is safer) but he’d been asking for a “big kid seat” and we figured it was probably time. He was excited!
We were so lucky that Aunt Gabby and Aunt Danielle got to sleep over Christmas Eve and spend all day Christmas with us. Aunts are awesome at putting together lego sets!
Andy got a book about poop from my dad and Leslie…
Ben’s “big” gift was a pirate set with a ship and fort. We got it off of ebay, and some pieces were missing (so we did kind of feel like the lamest parents ever). But he didn’t seem to mind.
Mermaid from my dad and Leslie. Look at those smiles!
Gabby’s gift to the kids were crocheted blankets (knitted? I honestly don’t know the difference) Cassidy’s was a pink mermaid tail.
And since Ben’s favorite color is purple, he got a purple dragon.
Danielle brought her ukulele and the kids had fun singing with her. Their favorite song was “You are my sunshine.”
Danielle snuggles.
Gabby snuggles.
We had our holiday dinner Christmas afternoon. Some of us were still in pajamas. And some of us don’t know how to take nice pictures. I should note that after church on Christmas Eve I thought it would be fun to use cookie cutters to make cut out pizzas. It made a mess and when the shapes baked they kind of turned into blobs. The kids thought it was fun though and I suppose we made a memory. Mom tried (life motto). The adults just make one big pizza on the pizza stone afterwards.
The kids really enjoyed Christmas punch in wine glasses (ginger ale, cranberry juice and sherbert).
Christmas sunset. What winter scene would be complete without snowmobile tracks through the yard?
Finally, we have Andy’s insanely bright insanely green LED light he delighted in sharing with the neighborhood. From outside it looked like the aliens had come and were beaming us up. We saw everything pink afterwards.
I loved sharing our low key Christmas with family this year! So thankful Gabby and Danielle could join us and make some memories.
