Christmas Time

 

We had such an enjoyable Christmas season this year.  We started out our Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve with my family up in Idaho City at Steamboat Gulch, sledding.  It was a little bit of a drive but was super fun.  We had never been up there before, but all you have to do is pay for parking and then you can spend all day hiking up the hill and sledding back down.  Our brother-in-law got a fire going and we had camp chairs set up and had snacks and lunch and hot chocolate.  It was a beautiful sunny day and we were all actually getting hot as the day went on.  We all had a blast and will definitely head up there again.  Just after lunch we needed to head back to the valley to get everyone showered and ready to head over to Craig's parents house for Christmas Eve dinner.  Luckily I had most of my food all prepped so we just had a few last minute things to do before heading over.  Craig has become the pro at the green bean casserole and I have happily passed that responsibility onto him.  The ginger cake was already baked, the sweet potato casserole just needed to be popped in the oven and the deviled eggs just had to be filled.  We then went on to eat a DELICIOUS prime rib dinner with the rest of Craig's family at his parents house.  After filling our bellies we re-created the nativity and watched a few old home videos where it sank in even more that McKay is Craig's little doppelganger.   We finished the night out at home and all headed to bed.  Luckily there was no need to help Santa set anything up, which allowed mom and dad to get to bed at a decent time.

Christmas morning we were up about 7:00, which I think is pretty great with kids our age.  We came down to find what Santa had left for us in our stockings and then ate some cinnamon rolls I had made a few days before.  We then headed to the tree to open up the rest of our gifts.  The kids did not have huge lists so between us and grandparents they got most of what they asked for.  The kids even did extra chores around the house around Thanksgiving time to earn money to buy each other gifts.  Brooklyn got McKay a watch and McKay got Brooklyn slippers.  Craig and I of course just bought  ourselves a few gifts so that we would have something to unwrap.  I was quite proud of the fleece blankets that I "made" for the kiddos.

After we were finished going through all our presents we headed up to my Mom's house for brunch and for the kids to open their gifts from Grandma.  The kids both got an experience they get to do with Grandma and they are pretty excited for their outings with her.  We hung there for quite a while before we then headed over to Craig's parents house to round out our Christmas Day rotations.  The kids loved their gifts and loved hanging out with cousins some more.  Craig and I loved eating leftovers from the night before.  Finally after dinner time we headed back home.  It was 2 days full of family, but we wouldn't have it any other way.  We are so blessed with all of the family that we have close and the love and support that they share with us and help us to make these holidays even more special.

We rounded out the week of Christmas with Graham and Brian's birthday party's.  The kids had a blast at Graham's ninja party and the parents had a blast at Brian's go-cart party.  We also played in the snow and headed to jumptime with some of the cousins.  We definitely were not bored!