New Year Fun

Goodness it took me a long time to post our

New Years Eve festivities.

We're almost in February

(say what?), so I thought I better get with it.

 

This year we decided to keep it low key.

The night started off with Todd, Cory, Lexx, and myself.

We thought we would start the year off right,

so we had seafood and bubbly.

 

Delicious bubbly from Crystal Basin Cellars!

This is where the family went wine tasting a month or so ago.

 

During dinner, we has some visitors.

 

My mom showed up with a couple of extra people.

Austin, Riley and Jarod all decided to stay at my

parents house a couple of extra days.

 

They had to come down because they were

flying out the next day.

 

Everyone made it to midnight to celebrate.

Except for one individual

Cole couldn't hang.

 

Maybe next year big guy!

Celebrating Christmas - Round 2

The day after Christmas, the family headed to Oregon

to go celebrate with my family.

This was a twist on our normal holiday tradition,

as we usually celebrate with my

parents on Christmas Eve.

This year my nephews flew out from Texas

and my parents to decided to take them

to Oregon instead of California.

 

It was a little bit of a drive, but we

ended up arriving around 9 PM.

When we pulled in we were greeted by

Santa and his very tall elf.

See for yourself.

 

Santa Jarod, Austin and Riley elf.

 

We all chit chatted for a little while

and then I gave my mom her very

late birthday present.

My mom's bright purple poncho.

 

Because of the long drive we all decided

to go to bed pretty early so that we could

have energy to exert the next day.

 

My dad was pretty sick with a flu/cough,

but he managed to get outside a few times

with "the boys".

 

All the boys shooting my dad's compound bow

into the tree.  Apparently this isn't a good idea,

it breaks your arrows...ooops.

 

It seems like the guys spent the majority of the time

doing outside stuff.  Like building fires, riding the atv,

shooting arrows...you get the idea.

 

Riley helping my dad cut up a small branch

for their bonfire.

 

There is some property for sale by my parent's house

and they really wanted Todd and I to look at it

(and buy it), so we appeased them and spent a couple

hours walking the property and trying to find property lines.

 

It was a beautiful piece of property

that had a lake view, and was 25 acres.

 

I didn't include very many pictures because

the majority of the time we were visiting,

we just ate and relaxed. It was a great way to

unwind from the hectic holiday schedules.

Riley sitting on Nana's lap.

He might be getting a little too big!

 

The day we left it decided to snow on us,

so we took it nice and slow and ended up arriving

home around 6 PM. 

I think that we might try to make this a yearly

tradition.  We'll have to see how the boys

schedule works out in the future, as well

as our kids schedule.

Entering Weed, CA from Oregon.

 

So did you do any quick little visits for the holidays?

Celebrating Christmas - Round 1

Well, it's taken me a while to post pictures

from Christmas, but they are finally here.

I don't know what the deal is, but it took

all day for me to upload the 15ish pictures

that you are below...

SO FRUSTRATING!

 

What wasn't frustrating - our Christmas.

It was such a wonderful and laid back celebration.

We actually celebrated Christmas twice,

but I figured I would break up the celebrations in

to two posts as to not overload you with pictures.

 

Our first celebration started Christmas

morning at our house.  Everyone rolled out of bed

around 9ish, at which time we opened presents,

ate breakfast, and got ready to head over to

Todd's parents house.

The tree with all the presents.

 

Todd was super awesome and made everyone breakfast.

Austin and Lexx had to pose for the usual Christmas picture.

Todd and Loki had a great time watching

everyone open gifts.

Lexx had to show off her super cute Christmas outfit.

 

When we arrived at the in-laws house,

Anne was making her famous sausage biscuits...

YUMMMM!

And Dennis was hard at work preparing food for the day.

While Dennis and Anne slaved away,

I took pictures of my good looking kiddos!

I love this picture that I got of all the girl cousins.

And I also got one of the boy cousins.

I don't know what it was about this picture,

but it made me laugh because

Mom (and soon to be Stepmom) was saying

something and the girls were giving each other

"the look."

All the guys ended up huddled around a

white board trying to help Robb come up

with a plan for grading (or something like that).

I did manage to get a picture with my kiddos

who I never get to spend time with

because they are in college.

Austin showed me how he holds wine glasses.

Clearly he doesn't drink lots of wine.

Later in the afternoon Lexx and I took some selfies.

And of course we had to take our big yearly family picture.

 

And like that, Christmas Day was over.

It was a wonderful low key event.

I just love when our family gets together!