Party Like It's 1999!

 On New Year's Eve, we moved the party on over to Uncle Jeff's house where the kids immediately started a nerf gun war that went on for hours.

We haven't seen them for 2.5 years and all the kids are looking so grown up! But everyone still likes to play.

 

We had lots of great snack foods,

 

fun family times,

 

& Grandma and Grandpa in town to play with.

We'd already decided we'd let Bean and Bug stay up (I can't believe we've gotten away with sending them to bed for this long!), but even Peanut was having so much fun playing, and Daddy-o ad I were too busy playing games, that we let his stay up to ring in the new year, too.

At midnight, we braved the single digit temps and ran outside just long enough to set off a couple fireworks (which freaked Peanut out--probably making him regret staying up.)

Good-bye, 2015! It's been quite the year!

Visiting

We didn't make it to see many people on this trip, but I didn't want to pass up the chance to see a friend I have known for almost 40 years when I was in the same state.

And this is the best I could do with getting a picture of all the kids and us. We spent the afternoon with the kids all playing and us trying to get a little chatting about life. I love it when it's like no time has passed when you meet up with old friends and just wish we could do it more often!

Hitting the Slopes

Our Christmas present for the family (don't tell Peanut he missed out--he's still young enough he didn't realize) was to go skiing/boarding. The kids were pretty excited, and I was excited to take them up to Brighton, which is where I learned to snowboard 21 years ago.

And even though it was REALLY cold (I think the high up there was about 18 degrees Monday), and we got off to a shaky start, it ended up being a lot of fun. We got slowed down at the rental place, which made us miss the morning lesson which we were going to have our two kids do, and then the resort was really busy, like the busiest that a lot of the people working there had ever seen it. So, it took us an hour to get on the lift the first time, and then, both kids were a little discouraged by their first attempt to come down the mountain. I like to think I'm a decent teacher, but I don't actually know how to ski, and Daddy-o has only been one other time, so we were doing our best, and not really making it clear to the kids how they were supposed to do this. We were starting to wonder if this was going to be another gift giving fail, which we seem to be kind of good at.

Daddy-o and I quickly realized that even though they were protesting, the best way to salvage the day was to get them signed up for the afternoon lesson so at least they'd have a chance at learning something, and we'd have a chance to go on some runs other than the bunny slope. We left the kids and headed over to a longer lift (with a shorter line, too). 

And then I figured out that while snowboarding might be like riding a bike and came back quickly, it uses muscles I don't use anymore, and the boots I'd rented were really too small, which meant my feet and legs were killing me after just a couple runs. But I did make it up to the top of the mountain where there was a gorgeous view, got to do some nice carving, and even found a little powder at the edge of the trees. I'm pretty much a chicken now and didn't do anything too crazy, but it was fun to be back up there.

And when we picked the kids up, they were excited to show us what they'd learned. Little A was doing awesome, too, flying down the mountain by the end. They had a few good runs down the bunny slope and finished the day happy and excited. I think we'll have to do this again sometime.

On the Ice

One of our Christmas presents from Uncle C and Aunt R was a trip to go ice skating at the Utah Olympic Oval where the 2002 speed skating competitions were held.
 

The kids were so excited because they have fond memories of the couple times we've taken them to the tiny rink in Uptown during the holidays, and this was skating at a whole new level. Bean didn't stop smiling from the time we got there.

Peanut took one step onto the ice and pretty much freaked out at how slippery it was 

and then happily rode in the stroller. Bug figured out that holding on to the stroller was a much nicer way to learn.

Bug wasn't the only one. . . I quickly learned that after only skating a few times in my life, and not being on the ice since 1996 or so, I can not ice skate. I did a lap with the stroller, and then I watched. And that was fun enough for me.

While we were there, we watched an 11 year old Olympic figure skating hopeful named Christina who already looked good enough to my untrained eyes. She's aiming for the 2018 games and were hoping we'll get to see her there.

Snow Much Fun

One of the most anticipated parts of our Christmas trip, and Utah hasn't failed us--SNOW!

There was already snow on the ground when we flew in and these kids were ready to get bundled up to go play. We didn't have boots for the first couple days, so it made the snow play a little tricky (and soggy), but it didn't stop them from trying.

There have been many expeditions up the "mountain" in Rara's back yard. The kids were pretty excited when they saw the hill and have been scrambling up and down every day.

This sherpa climbed it 9 times in the first 5 days.

Daddy-o went up once.

Sherpa #2 has led Peanut up to Base camp 3, but even with my help, we couldn't get him to stop doing jello-legs at that point and there was no way to drag him up the rest of the way.

Getting ready to summit with their cousin.

It's been fun playing with these kids (except for the part where I was trying to drag Peanut up the mountain--that wasn't so fun and I'm so glad he finally decided to go back down.)

Girls who climb mountains!

Bug made it up, too. He was kind enough to escort Peanut back down and then joined us at the top a moment later.

I think these cousins have been having fun.

Then there are the people who chose to stay in where it's warm. I should be fair--on Christmas Day, we'd gotten 8-10 inches of fresh snow and thought it would be a great time to go try out the sledding hill near Rara's house, but the wind was so bitterly cold that the 2 little boys didn't last long at all (Peanut was crying about the wind as soon as we got to the top of the hill), and I was only a few minutes behind them. We watched from the car after that.

But these guys had fun sledding for about 30 minutes.

Daddy-o got Peanut to do one run with him. You can see the snow blowing across the hill--it was just as miserable as it makes it look.

Bean pulling the little cousin, K.

At the top!

Bug and A on their way down.

There was a small jump which Bug was so excited to try. Everyone else (except me) ended up going down, too, but they quickly learned that landing on a hard plastic sled is kids' fun. It hurts a little more when you aren't less than 80 pounds.

Snow and Christmas with cousins has been the perfect vacation. 

White Christmas!

Look what happened while we were sleeping! It was snowing a little when we went to bed, but the flakes were so small that I was afraid it wasn't going to amount to much of anything. But we got a few inches and it kept falling for part of the morning.

Someone was eagerly waiting for us to give her the signal that they could come in the living room.

They were all pretty happy when they saw that Santa brought them new animals. It's pretty much the only way to get them these days because Mama thinks the 100+ that we already own are enough.

Although these guys are pretty cute.

I didn't document the present unwrapping. I feel like those pictures never turn out as much anyway and I was having more fun just watching everyone, but the kids got some fun stuff and there was plenty to play with after the fact.

This new playdough set was a big hit.

Check out the waffles with strawberries and whip cream!

Everyone wanted to play.

Although Bug was quickly distracted by his new gadget kit. I'm afraid that his ability to make light sensor/motion detector alarms is going to have me pretty jumpy for the next little while. Who doesn't get scared when you turn on the bathroom light and hear a women screaming?

And I have to highlight the creativity of our kids. We weren't really doing gifts this year, but we told the kids that if they really wanted to, they could make something to give, but I made it clear that part of why I didn't want to deal with gifts this year, when we were traveling just a few days before Christmas, was that I didn't want to spend Christmas Eve stressing about making presents with them like the last few years have been. Well, Bug did end up spending most of yesterday making these, but I only really helped with one (Unkie and Rara came to the rescue on a couple others.) And how can you not love this--from top, clockwise, there's a pirate nutcracker for Daddy-o, a chores coupon book for me, a seal for Peanut, a marble tic-tac-toe board for Unkie, doll clothes for Bean, and an illustrated poem for Rara.

I really can't believe that he made this with only a little woodworking help. He painted that face himself.

And this game is so fun--he did this one in cub scouts.

The sock seal is complete with whiskers.

Quintain, with a pretty awesome sewing machine picture.

And this one is the painting Bean did for us in art. They were given red, blue, and yellow and had to make the colors. These kids and their artistic talent and creativity constantly amaze me.

Anticipation

Christmas excitement has come to peak.

Coming "home" for Christmas means I've been plunged backwards in time 20+ years to when these were the decorations that I saw each day and that signaled Christmas to me. The wood angel collection that someone from the scout troup when my dad was assistant scout master made for him, Stupid Santa that my dad had before he got married, my parents' bear collection that used to sit on our TV cabinet each December

 the nativity that my aunt painted for us--it all has fun memories. 

And once we had our stockings hung by the chimney with care, we'd made our mark on the house. (We made our mark in a lot of other ways, too--there are snow clothes and little bits of kids at every door, table, chair, and bed. When we arrive, everyone knows!)

Along with reliving my childhood, there's been lots of Christmas prep. 

These two baked Snickerdoodles and Chocolate Krinkle cookies with Rara. 

Peanut is becoming a professional cookie baker with all the helping he's gotten to do this year.

There's been some intense work going on in the office. These two started a bank/investment firm.

They were handling credit card applications and loans right up until Christmas Eve dinner.

Bean taught her cousin all about buying low and selling high. 

Games and puzzles have also been helping to keep kids occupied until the big day. I love seeing Bean play with the same toys that I used to play with at my grandma's house.

And finally, the big night was here! The kids side of the table. . .

And the grown-up half (with my photo-bomber son. Not sure anything makes him quite as happy as a good photo bomb.) The food was all delicious and we  had a lot of fun. I love getting together with my family.

Dinner went late and these 5 were all pretty excited (and not really seeming ready for bed.) Peanut was bouncing around yelling about Santa coming, Bug, who had spent all day making presents announced at 9:30 p.m. that he needed to wrap everything, and Bean couldn't stop looking out the window for snow, and to check on the box she'd made for the feral cats Unkie has been feeding. Even after A and K left, they were pretty wired.

Christmas Eve--the most exciting night of the year!