We had another wonderful Christmas with family this year. We opened presents in the morning and then Nana joined us shortly after that for the rest of the days’ festivities. It’s fun having a full house this time of year! Uncle Scott –  always goofing off! It was a very Frozen Christmas at our house this year. Layla got this castle with Anna & Elsa dolls, a book with smaller figurines from Frozen II and an Elsa dress (Frozen II version). The wolf she’s been asking for all year! Hot chocolate! That’s Avery holding up some Old Spice Swagger he got in his stocking! She got her horse (even if it is not real, she loves “Brownie”. Happy boy got AirPods (along with the rest of the 7th grade class). The BMC D-Day set! Madeleine and Elsa More Charades Nana’s  here! Time to feast Everyone Best roast ever!

Another fun Christmas Eve is in the books. Grammy came up the weekend prior to help prepare, and Papa and The Avery’s of Pullman showed up that afternoon in time for the festivities. We had our usual spread of hors d’oeuvres followed by “The Dice Game”. Then Santa paid us a visit and we played some Charades before bedtime. 

If looks could kill

Hard to believe it’s the same girl!

The kids opened packages from Auntie Ashleigh & Uncle Mark. They loved the cash and we all appreciated the charity gift cards

Frosting cookies!

Making mushroom cups

The dice game!

Kieron was sure he had one of the two hot cocoa bombs Grammy told him she put in the game. Turns out he ended up with one of the two finger puppets Mommy put in! His reaction was priceless!

Look who ended up with the cocoa bomb!

Sweet Papa was happy to trade Kieron

Those faces!

Silas, checking Santa out good

This girl loved every second with Santa!

Playing charades before bed

Here’s the rest of what our family was up to in December:

Dancing to Coldplay

Festive pedis

Avery’s Boy Scout troop made these snowmen as a fundraiser

Playing Uno

This girl loves shoes. She really loves stomping around in Mommy’s shoes too.

Look who joined in!

Jonathan and I went to see Ben Gibbard play at Washington Hall in Seattle

“Dear Daddy, from Silas. I am so sorry for saying, “can I have sausage balls over and over.” xoxoxoxo

Jonathan took the boys to see the new Star Wars movie while Grammy and I baked.

Grammy, Layla and I made divinity while the boys were at the show

 

We made a gingerbread house   

We went to the Bellevue Botanical Gardens to see the lights

We went to visit Santa and his reindeer at the Cougar Mountain Zoo the weekend before Christmas. By now we are old pros at this and so we arrived right at opening, which meant no waiting in line. We proceeded straight to Santa and visited with the reindeer on our way back down. Then we said hi to the rest of the animals, but we had to go pretty quickly because it was very cold! All in all, a successful visit.

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We went to Maui again this December. It was great to get away from the rain and to see the sun again! Happy travelers “All that flying makes me tired.” The view from our first hotel wasn’t too shabby. We were perched right on Black Rock Our elf, Jingle, even followed us to Hawaii again! Where do Mommy and Daddy sleep? Took a quick pic of the kids before they developed tans She insisted on carrying her own gear Snorkling at Black Rock Kieron & Daddy Avery The Three Amigos Silas & Daddy Back at the pool “I want more gwink!” Avery found a little friend At Leilani’s Here comes the hula pie Watching the international space station with Nana Morning breakfast buffet at our first hotel. Couples and children under 3 eat for free. All others are $15 each, which means the boys got to eat donut holes in the room and play iPad while we dined with our littlest. These two! Mama couldn’t resist the mermaid suit at one of the local shops. Needless to say, Layla got a lot of attention in her new outfit (which she loved almost as much as I did)! Beach Boys Moving to The Marriott Our Armada was a little full At the pirate ship. We only spent a couple of hours here our whole vacation! Crazy how all of a sudden things change so significantly. We let the big boys play at the beach while we stayed at the pool with the littles as long as they weren’t in the water without us there. Here’s a pic I took while spying on them. Look at what good boys they’re being! This is the pool where Layla wanted to spend a lot of her time. It has multiple levels so she can walk out to where she feels safe swimming and then test herself. On the other side it’s deep enough for her brothers to swim. We played a lot of catch here and Layla practiced a lot of swimming. At the beach with my boys Just spying on the big boys again Cuties! Treasure hunt at the pirate ship Goggles, fins, wings – the full deal! Family selfie back in our room This face! We ventured out to Twin Falls one day for a short hike Back at the resort – mother-daughter selfies Twins We took the kids to lunch at Roy’s one day With Nana at Cheeseburger in Paradise Someone likes her powdered donut holes Making apps with Frank Look who takes all the blankets! These two are such good buddies. They had fun boogie boarding together Watching winder surfers, kite boarders and surfers Date Night at Roys! We had a lot of fun playing basketball and pass on this trip At the beach Coconuts, one of our favorite restaurants! Time to head home!