We had a Merry Christmas at Nama and Papa's house. As usual we had a fabulous time. Highlights included:
- Christmas Eve traditions, including the Nativity, cranberry muffins with butter sauce, singing around the piano (Kyleigh got to play some of the songs this year), and opening the gifts that we gave each other. We changed it up a bit this year and did present opening just for the kids first. Adults opened when the kids were done. All of our gifts were fun. I especially loved my how to belly dance kit and my remote key finder. I found out that I am not the only one with a secret wish to learn belly dancing (Go Brianna!). I set up the two receptors for my remote key finder on my keys and my phone so maybe I won't lose them for awhile. I was most excited to see the gift that Kyleigh gave Brianna be opened. She got her a necklace that says "sisters at heart." Kyleigh had the other half of the pair. Brianna loved it.
- Cousin time. Dress up, games, Nama's playground, Penny Park, and playing with Christmas presents were a few favorite past-times. Kyleigh has been looking forward to having Brianna dress her up for 16 months, since the last time we were in Silver. Nama has the best dress up collection in the world. Brianna did not disappoint. To make it even better, Brianna even did Kyleigh's make-up. Kyleigh also got to spend lots of time with Ben. The two of them have a special bond. They get along so well. It takes about 10 minutes and it's like no time has lapsed since the time we spent in Albuquerque and they were essentially brother and sister. I know Kyleigh really looks forward to adventures with Ben.
- To the mountains. A wood cutting trip to the mountains to stock up Nama and Papa's wood pile. I think I took enough pictures of Rusty cutting wood to make my own calender and he can be Mr. Everymonth.
- City of rocks. We had a fire and roasted hot dogs and s'mores. We did lots of climbing. Katelyn spent her time hunting for "indian stuff."
- Mexican Food. The must have Mexican food at Jalisco's-twice. Long live the large combination.
- SNOW! Our 0% chance of snow turned into 10 inches of fresh snow a few days after Christmas. We can get out the door with sunscreen and a car full of beach gear in about 1/10 of the time it took us to get out the door to play in the snow. Eventually, we made it. The first day we couldn't drive anywhere because the roads were bad so we walked down the hill and found a place to sled. It wasn't a great sledding hill, but it turned out to be a great place to mount a snowball attack on the unsuspecting people at the bottom of the hill. When a counterattack was launched Katelyn hit the deck and slid all the way down the hill. She thought it was so fun and we all did it again and again. Kyleigh put snow all over her face to create a really cold Santa beard. The second time we went sledding we went to a great hill at the college stadium. Kyleigh and I had a snowball factory and built enough snowballs to cover one of the sleds and threw them all at once. Ridge wasn't too excited about the cold, but enjoyed being pulled around in one of the sleds. Katelyn didn't want to sled because she was scared. Finally Nama and Papa convinced her to sled down about 5 feet. Papa slowly inched his way up the hill until Katelyn was sledding from the very top. Then she spotted a little jump that someone had made. She decided she wanted to do that. Before we left the girl who didn't want to sled was going from the top of the hill and catching air on a snow ramp. I purposefully didn't include pictures of Ridge on these adventures because he was decked out in a shamelessly pink, ruffly snowsuit. I want him to like me when he is sixteen.
- Snow ice cream. Holly taught us how to make snow ice cream out of snow, sugar, vanilla and milk.
- Just Dance. Jenny and Don brought their wii with 4 remotes and the just dance game. We had a great time trying to beat Joseph (who informed us that he can beat the whole cheerleading team). Holly beat him once. Go Holly! Even better than seeing Joseph get beat was watching Papa dance!
- The Family Olympics. The events this year in the family olympics were pool, ping pong, and twister. Mike was the overall winner. Josh, who is ten, is a pretty amazing pool and ping pong player. Ten or not, you can't underestimate him!
- Movies. We watched alot of fun new shows that we have never seen before.
- Laptop City. In one house we had 8 laptop computers and one desktop computer. Nobody fought over the computer this year.
- Santa Clause- Oh yeah, Santa Clause came, too. We had a fabulous Christmas morning. The girls got real digital cameras. They took and have taken all kinds of great pictures. I love to look at the things they find exciting enough to take pictures of. Ridge loves his ball popper. It was the perfect gift for him. Thanks Santa!
New Years Eve- Appetizers and a movie rounded out the New Year. It was low key with shrimp, my kind of new year.
What a great holiday. It was so thoughtful of everyone to get us such nice gifts. I have to say even better than the gifts was the hospitality and the time that we got to spend together. We had a great time. Thanks to everyone!
