Tuesday, January 03, 2012

Better Later Than Never--CHRISTMAS WEEK!

Treats to deliver on 12.17
Niles is indeed a gift ;) 12.19




On 12.20, Heidi played Baba in her class productions of the Ukranian folktale, "The Mitten."



Is she not the most adorable little Baba (grandmother) ever?



After the play, Mrs. Meador's second graders sang us some really enthusiastic carols.


Cutie Heidi


Niles snuck a sugar cookie and it was yummy!


12.21 was the last day of school before Christmas Break, so we went to Addie's school for a carol sing along with the 4th grade then a cookie party afterward in her classroom.


There she is in the middle of the crowd




Daddy, Grandma, and Niles in the audience

(with Izzi's parents, our friends Vicki & Mike behind us)

Addie and her reindeer



Later Wednesday night, Addie met with her friends and Aunt Jenn for an Activity Days party at the church. The older kids went caroling in the cold.

***
On Thursday, 12.22, we finally got to hang out with the Roberts family who moved into the ward from St. George, Utah this summer. Just before tehy came, I found out my mama was in ICU with pneumonia and sepsis--total bummer! We had a great time with our friends and kept prayers inour hearts for Nana.

First we made candy trains.

(Addie, Zach, Jessie, Gavin, James, Carter, and Heidi)


Carter making his coal car.


Heidi & Addie making trains and snacking on pigs-in-a-blanket


Jessie helping Gavin & James


Heidi showing off her "Princess Leia Buns" for Aunt Debbie
*

I regret that we didn't take more pictures at dinner time, when the Dads joined the fun, Rich made delicious hand-tossed pizza, Jessie brought a yummy salad, and the kids had a blast.


Our family room ready for Christmas.
***

So Christmas Eve came. We made a Swedish Dinner for Rich's whole family, including authentic Christmas Cabbage ("brown cabbage"-Mark Drews, you would have loved it!), Janssen's Temptation potato casserole, plus dill and parsley red potatoes, Graadas & kotbullar-gravy and meatballs, just like they serve at Ikea, only better ;). The Elf brought pajamas and we read a story with Aunt Angie (her kids were with their dad & we missed them), then we made a big family bed in the basement and watched "A Christmas Story" [fa-ra-ra-ra-ra, ra-ra-ra-ra!] unitl 10pm when the kids went to sleep and Santa came.

Our kids at 6:30 am, ready to see what Santa brought upstairs...


and then we didn't take many pictures, dang it!



Uncle Mike came over to open his gifts with us, and we got him his very own telescope!


Niles loved his mini-raceway...and look! He learned to sit up just in time to play with it!


Addie watching James open his gifts. Daddy gave him a huge box of Legos!

*

It was a good year to have church after gift-opening because we didn't have much to open--quality, not quantity this year ;) I got a new phone (welcome to the milennium, Jamie!) and Rich won an ipad for me--it's so much fun! We had a lovely service at church with our ward family. I was glad we sang "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" in church--it's such a beautiful song, and I just loved meeting together to celebrate such a Holy Day. We had a nice ham dinner at Grandma Melin's house and a restful day delivering last-minute gifts and playing with our new toys. Mellow and succeessful-- I think I love not traveling on Christmas (although we miss our loved ones so much). The day after Christmas we took the kids to Bozeman for lunch, to Museum of the Rockies, and to Target to spend their gift certificates from Aunt Lisa. The girls got warm, pretty new hats, and James got a much-needed lego case/lapdesk thing. SO FUN. On Tuesday 12.27, our California Melin cousins arrived for 2 weeks at the ranch house. We have had a great week with them, and we'll post those pictures soon. Happy New Year to all y'all! I'd love to see links or comments about what y'all did.

2 comments:

Becky said...

Ha ha nude baby bums. I also had baby bath pictures on my blog. I would personally like to stay in the bath all winter long, so very appropriate, I must say!

Anonymous said...

Love those cute little bums

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