New Years!

Fondue  

Werewolf, Poop the card game, Meet it Beat it or Eat it, and Charades at 11:00 to get us to Midnight

Night sledding and EPIC fireworks thanks to Byron's friend and Sunday School teacher Brother Fisher and Uncle Jared

Tea Time

Getting fancy with cousins and finger foods.  

Gingerbread Houses & Cousins

Gingerbread houses at Grandpa and Grandma Ray's with cousins!

Family Gifts

Miriam had the great idea to leave the gifts we bought each other under the tree so that when we had to leave Grandpa and Grandma's house it wasn't so desperately sad because we would have something to look forward to.

This is always my very favorite part of Christmas.  These kids work really hard to give each other thoughtful gifts.  They put so much work into being sneaky and having little meetings, it's like a kind version of Survivor where no one is ever kicked off the island, but you are kicked out of the room sometimes.

To go along with our Survivor theme our family gift was Buffs all around and a family ski trip this winter.

I love this little tribe of mine.

Christmas Eve

We drove down to Price for Christmas Eve, first driving out to Huntington to visit my Grandpa then swinging back up to Price.

My mom and dad made their traditional Danish Dinner and everyone was there except for Mark Esme and new little Lora.  We ate and chatted for awhile and then went caroling around the neighborhood.  It was so fun to walk around singing carols. We were received warmly and had enjoyed being out in the fresh air singing together. 

We skyped with Mark and Esme and were able to see darling Lora in real time.

Then we put on a rambunctious Nativity. This one was difficult to organize...none of the girls wanted to be Mary so Hazel was up for the role.  Her 1 year old interpretation of Mary was not the contemplative Mary, but a Mary who was jazzed by the whole experience! She danced around as shepherds and wisemen came to visit.

My mom gave a little devotional about wisdom and gave the grandkids a generous gift.

Since we were the only family staying over with Grandma and Grandpa we opened our Christmas Eve Jammies after the party ended and went straight to bed!

Christmas Morning

Kids were up around 7:00 which is amazing!  That is totally sleeping in for our family.

The kids didn't really ask for anything but Santa came up with some fun things!
The boys have had a blast with their RC cars

and it snowed!!! I love when it snows on Christmas!!

Grandpa and Grandma got busy making Ebelskivers for everyone to come back up for Breakfast

We had a leisure abelskiver morning and then Darin and Grandpa took the kids up to the Honda Hills to drive the RC cars in the mud.  They LOVED IT!

The kids finished watching all our traditional Christmas movies and ate Christmas stocking candy as we drove home.

Celebratin'

The functional skills class I TA in performed their annual Christmas Program.

It was delightful, and I tell you what...no one can feel like a Grinch at this program, I cry every year.

Sometimes the kids in my class have recess the same time as Byron and Soren.  (Mostly Byron this year, it seems like 3rd grade has a schedule of their own). Well every once an awhile I have to break the rules and take a photo because my boys are just looking so cute, but also so grown up....and I didn't notice the grown up part until this very moment.

So here it is....the moment I realized I have an 11 year old who will be 12 before I am ready.

We took Madison downtown to see the lights and the kids found our new family car!

Dream on....

But we did buy some chickens and books and baby supplies.

We walked through the crowds seeing the sites, had dinner and did just a tiny bit of shopping.

We all saw Elf the Musical the Friday before Christmas.

Such a cute show!

Skiing

5th grade means the 5th Grade Pass and an introduction to skiing! Byron will get to ski a few times this season, but since I want to do a family ski day this year I decided to get Soren a lesson as well.

I took the boys out of school to have a lesson at Sundance.  The instructor said they caught on quickly and had made 4 runs together.  He said they were totally ready to go up by themselves...but watching them going up on the lift about did me in with anxiety. 

They looked so little, going up so high!

They made it, and were all smiles!

Hot chocolate in the lodge where they were playing 90's hair band music.

I lost these tickets almost immediately after being given them.  Luckily I retraced my steps and found them in the snow...I assumed they were mine.  Since I did get the boys back I must have been right!