Christmas 2011

We have been so fortunate to be able to go to my parents each year for a long Christmas vacation. This year was no exception.  We left on the 18th; arriving 5 days before everyone else (except Morgan) and stayed until the 29th.

Before everyone else arrived:

We attended a concert with my parents.


Did major grocery shopping.  We eat a lot.

We planned fun Christmas Eve and Christmas Day games.

We went swimming at the aquatic center. I need to get Boston into swimming lessons asap. She had so much fun!

We watched football and drank margaritas at Chili's.

We visited my high school BFF and her twins. Who I must say are dang cute.

We were introduced to painting snow. Thanks Grandma (and Pinterest). The girls LOVED it.

 And making ice cream cone Christmas trees.

Then... everyone arrived.

We (meaning Morgan & Tiara) wrapped ALL of the presents.  They literally spent hour upon hour wrapping presents.

Christmas Eve was spent grazing over our buffet of cheesy shrimp dip, shrimp cocktail, hot wings, buffalo chicken dip, cordon bleu and pastrami sandwiches, artichoke jalepeno dip, stuffed mushrooms, oranges with dip, rocky road fudge, a delicious trifle and a yummy lime drink.

We played an easy yet amusing round of name that Christmas Carol, by acting out the titles like charades.

Followed by a contest to see who could rip a piece of paper, behind their back, into the shape of a Christmas tree the best.  We all voted. It was a 3 way tie between Laura, Sundee and Mike. It was really a fun game!

We ended the night watching Home Alone and bringing up all of the presents.  I don't know about you, but I have never seen so many presents!

We started Christmas morning at 7:30. That is pretty darn early for our family.

We do stockings first, followed by the breakfast of champions: Homemade cinnamon rolls, bacon, sausage, orange juice and hot chocolate.



After we were stuffed, we opened presents.  After about an hour of doing our traditional one-at-a-time method we realized we needed to speed things up.  Casey passed out the rest so we could actually make it to one o'clock church.

Braden was roped in to singing in the choir, my mom was the pianist, Morgan was the page turner and Tiara sang with the young women and played her violin. 
It was a very nice program. (even if Boston woke up half way through and screamed at the top of her lungs... oh and then yelled "Noooooooo!" when I asked her to fold her arms for the closing prayer.)

After church we made a delicious ham dinner, complete with a birthday cake for Jesus.

Christmas night we played Minute to Win it games.  Super fun.

Wafer Face. Putting a Nilla Wafer on your forehead and seeing who can get it to their mouth using only facial expressions.

A cereal box puzzle.

 Cup stacking.

 The nativity puzzle.  We've had this wooden puzzle for years. At some point I did hold the record for being able to put it together the fastest. But, I lost.  Winner: Sundee

 Oreo Stack.

Ornament Balancing

 Ping Pong Ball Bouncing

Ping Pong Drop

After Christmas, we enjoyed time at my grandparents ranch in New Harmony.



We also put together puzzles, baked, and of course, worked on cars.



Went shooting

Played with babies

Played games.

 

And did a LOT of chatting.

I am so thankful that we have all been able to get together for the most part.  We missed Garrett's family this year, but almost always we are all home at the same time at least once a year. That's saying something with there being 8 kids!

Thank you mom and dad for housing all of us, and making everything so fun. You guys are awesome, and we love you!