My Dad and Gail were out in California the weekend before Thanksgiving, so Bre and I met up with them for a wonderful weekend of catching up at Aunt Terry's!
Upon returning home, I thought I might spice it up a bit for the holiday's and cut some bangs for the first time in 22 years!
Brooke and her family came up to visit for the holiday and we took a family picture for the first time since my wedding. We were all very please with the results!
On my birthday the whole family went bowling, we weren't sure how the little kids were going to do, but they loved it!
On Thanksgiving night we started our Christmas shopping! I left at 7pm and arrived home at 7am! I got most of the Christmas presents, birthday presents, and winter shopping done, I was so happy! The line outside of Toys R Us was crazy. I was number 41 out of 2500!!
The first weekend of December brought us to Red Feather Christmas Tree Farm for our annual tradition of cutting down the tree. This year in lieu of a Silver tip, we went with a Douglas Fir.
Every year, the City of Auburn puts on The Festival of Lights parade. It's a time for the whole community to come together and say, "Merry Christmas!" to each other.
For our Christmas presents to each other, Bobby and I took a weekend together in Las Vegas. We ate like kings and took two days in the spa. It was a wonderful, relaxing get away!
When we got home from our trip, it was time for me to get busy! I had baskets full of homemade yummies that I had made as presents for my family. La Maison du Cluck was in full swing! My friend, Kiernan and I made apple butter, lemon jelly, mandarin marmalade, Italian pasta soup, and scented rice bags to heat up for sore muscles. Wrapped in a festive basket, I think these gifts were a hit! I also made lots of yummy pies this year, lemon meringue being the prettiest.
On Monday, the 20th, we took the kids to the mall to go see Santa. On that night was also scheduled a "flash mob" that was to surprise mall patrons and burst into the Hallelujah Chorus near the food court. The problem was that no one had kept it a secret. Over 5000 people showed up to hear this Christmas song. It was truly amazing to see how many people came because they wanted to feel that Christmas spirit. Unfortunately, the mall was quickly over capacity and the fire department came in and had to evacuate the place. What could have become a scary place to be remained calm and orderly. Everyone left, but what were we to do? The kids were all dressed and Rowan was dying to see Santa. We didn't have much time at this point so we hurried to Sunrise Mall and saw the Santa there. The experience was so much better! The mall had hardly any people in it, with only 10 people in line to see Santa. Ellis wouldn't go near Santa this year, so the picture is only of the boys. Afterward, instead of going to our usual Christmas light tour on Strand in Rocklin, we went to the Walnut St. Christmas light display that was down the street. We enjoyed the Christmas lights there so much more than usual! The boys stood on the center console and put their heads up through the sunroof to see all the lights. We had our Christmas music blaring and the boys were shouting Merry Christmas! I think that this is one of my favourite traditions!
Soon, it was Christmas Eve and we took our traditional trip up to Papa Ernie's and Nana Nannette's house. We had dinner with the whole family and the cousins had fun running around the house together. Our tree was decorated and waiting for Santa to come!
The next morning, we found that Santa had arrived at our house! He had left presents, filled the stockings, and left a note for the kids as always. My parents and brother, Bryce came up to enjoy watching the kids opening their presents. We took a long time just opening stockings, ate a very yummy breakfast and then slowly opened our presents under the tree. It was nice to take our time and have the magic last. Later in the afternoon we went down to my parents house for game playing a delicious meal! It was a very merry Christmas!
All the kids received fun things for Christmas. Some of the favourites were an Air Hog Helicopter with a spy camera, a large moving dino, a tool bench, and Ellis got her first Barbie dolls!
On the week between Christmas and New Year's we took the kids up to the snow to play and do some sledding. We went up to Cisco Grove, which is really just a gas station with a big play area next to it. It's not a snow park and there are signs everywhere saying, "Sled at your own risk." Comforting. It was 24 degrees outside, but the kids had a blast! I realized too late that I had left the memory card for the camera at home and so i took a few photos with my phone.
We spent New Year's Eve at Bobby's sister, Jodi's house. We stayed up playing games and eating yummy snacks. The cousins all played so well together and then next morning we had a fantastic breakfast at The Purple Place. On New Year's Day we had the missionaries over for dinner with our last traditional meal of the season. Roast duck and oyster dressing. It was so good and we had a wonderful time reflecting back on the last few weeks. We feel truly blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful friends and family. We hope that everyone else had a memorable holiday as well!
No comments:
Post a Comment