I know I haven't been the greatest at updating my blog lately. I am promising to do better. We had a great holiday season. We have enjoyed reading a couple of Christmas stories together as a family, we made sugar cookies for Santa (of course we had our fill also), we braved shopping the Saturday before Christmas together as a family, we held our traditional family slumber party underneath the Christmas tree, and we have just enjoyed being together as a family.
It was our turn to spend Christmas with the Kennedy side this year. With our children being older and four of them it makes traveling for Christmas very hard to do. We decided when Sam was little to quit the traveling part and stay home and spend time with our little family and then try to see both extended families sometime over the holidays. Since Bryon's parents only live 40 minutes
away it makes spending time with them on Christmas a little more feasible. This year Dorothy, my mother-in-law invited us down on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We spent the majority of the day finishing those last minute Christmas things. We left here and stopped and picked up Bryon's grandpa that lives on the way. Christmas at my in-laws was a little quieter this year. Bryon's two sisters from Utah didn't come up and Bryon's brother that lives in Tennessee isn't coming out until January. So that left us and Bryon's two brothers and their families that live in Idaho Falls. Bryon's family's Christmas Eve tradition is more casual than mine. We had clam chowder, crackers, a relish tray, and cheese for dinner. We then had peppermint ice cream and sugar cookies for dessert. Several years ago, my mother-in-law made each family a binder of the Christmas story. In it, it has pictures and songs that go along with the story. So after dinner we sat in the living room and took turns reading the Christmas story and singing songs. Everyone was anxious to get back to their own houses to get ready for Santa to come. The kids had fallen asleep on the way home. We had to wake them to open their Christmas pajamas and to get out milk and cookies for Santa.
away it makes spending time with them on Christmas a little more feasible. This year Dorothy, my mother-in-law invited us down on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We spent the majority of the day finishing those last minute Christmas things. We left here and stopped and picked up Bryon's grandpa that lives on the way. Christmas at my in-laws was a little quieter this year. Bryon's two sisters from Utah didn't come up and Bryon's brother that lives in Tennessee isn't coming out until January. So that left us and Bryon's two brothers and their families that live in Idaho Falls. Bryon's family's Christmas Eve tradition is more casual than mine. We had clam chowder, crackers, a relish tray, and cheese for dinner. We then had peppermint ice cream and sugar cookies for dessert. Several years ago, my mother-in-law made each family a binder of the Christmas story. In it, it has pictures and songs that go along with the story. So after dinner we sat in the living room and took turns reading the Christmas story and singing songs. Everyone was anxious to get back to their own houses to get ready for Santa to come. The kids had fallen asleep on the way home. We had to wake them to open their Christmas pajamas and to get out milk and cookies for Santa. Bryon and I both woke up before the kids. We woke up at 5:50 (thanks to Bryon's alarm). Bryon wanted to go out to shovel the snow and get a fire started before the kids got up. The kids got up about 6:10.
We had a wonderful Christmas. Here is a little run down of what we got.
Bryon, Sam, Conner and I got the Wii. We each got a game that goes with the Wii.
Sam -- Sam got some Playmobile, some Bionicles, and a nice CD/Stereo for his bedroom.
Conner -- Got Marbleworks, some Tech Deck Dudes, and a nice ATM machine to keep his allowance in.
Logan -- The Geo Trax Airport, V-Smile Pocket and some cartridges for it, and a new quilt for his bed.
Natalie -- She got the Loving Family Dollhouse and all the room accessories for it, she got a new Barbie, a Barbie Styling head, a new lamp for her room, and some new Barbie movies.
Bryon -- Bryon finally got the part that makes his bike an indoor bike. I think I managed to surprise him.
Me -- I got the new Wii Fit. I am so excited. Now if I can just figure out how to sink it with the Wii.
Santa also surprised Bryon with tickets for he and I to go to Salt Lake this spring and see Wicked.
We enjoyed spending the majority of the day together. Bryon's parents came up that morning to deliver their Christmas presents to us and to see what the kids got for Christmas. They said the roads were terrible and so we were hoping to be able to make it back to their house for Christmas dinner.
It snowed pretty much all day here. We had talked all day about probably just staying home. About 3 we finally decided to try to go to Idaho Falls. We took pajamas just in case we couldn't make it back. The roads were a little treacherous. Dinner was fabulous. My mother-in-law cooked a nice roast for dinner. The kids were so excited that Santa even found Grandpa & Grandma and brought them a huge new bucket of Tinker Toys! While the kids played, we watched an old family video of the Kennedy Family together for Thanksgiving of (I think) 1988. What a blast from the past. Bryon had just gotten his mission call. It was so funny to watch.
We have continued to party all weekend. We look forward to going to Burley in a few days to spend New Years with my parents and sister's family.
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