Merry Christmas - Part 2...Christmas Eve

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve celebration at Mom and Dad's house - one of our best ever!  Peter and I surprised the kids with a new family car that was parked outside Mom and Dad's house.  When we drove up, Kelsey said, "Did someone really get a car for Christmas?"  Peter and I led the kids to believe that the neighbor must have gotten the car, but we should go look at it.  I told them I'd wanted a red Honda Fit.  McKenzie made sure to let us know that she thought the car was ugly and didn't see a need to go look at it :).  (The funny thing is that Peter and I talked the night before that we knew McKenzie would say she didn't like it, but we weren't going to let that ruin the surprise :)  Peter and I excitedly went over to look at the car, assuming the kids would follow....but they didn't.  They thought it was so embarrassing that we would be looking in the neighbor's car.  Then I told them that our key worked to unlock the car, and they still didn't show any interest.  Kelsey went inside Mom and Dad's house and told them how she couldn't believe that Peter was getting into the neighbor's car.  When we told them it was our car, the finally believed us and were excited.  After the car surprise, We enjoyed a delicious barbecue steak dinner that Peter and Sam cooked for us.  It was fun being with everyone and opening gifts together.  Kelsey especially loved her present from her cousin Alex which was a poster of 100 of her Instagram pictures.  The kids got their matching Christmas jammies and opened their gift from Max and Ruby (the dogs).  Omi (my 91 1/2 year-old grandma) wanted to stay for all of the present opening and insisted on being dropped off outside her Retirement Home with her 20-pound bag of gifts and would not allow us to help her to her apartment!  I imagined everything falling off of her walker and landing on her feet, but I guess her strong will is why she's still able to get around at her age :).    

Merry Christmas Part 1 - Cookie Exchange

Merry Christmas, everyone!  I'm a little behind in our Christmas blogging, so here is part one.  We loved having everyone over for our annual cookie exchange on Saturday!  It's an annual tradition that all the girls in our family get together for cookie exchanging, white elephant gifting, and lots of talking and eating :).  A few minutes before the party started, I asked McKenzie to taste the broccoli cheddar soup Peter and I made - only to find out that she said the texture was horrible...Given that was the main dish I was serving for our party, I had to do a last minute scramble to try to find an immersion blender to make the soup a little smoother.  After going to a few neighbors' houses to try to borrow one with no luck, my dad brought one over from their house - thanks, Dad!  The soup eventually turned out to be tasty.  This year it was special to have Matt's fiance, Lorena, and her mom join us since they will be part of the family very soon.  We definitely missed Fawn, Mia, and baby Emma.  Given that Emma was only 3 days old, we understood why they weren't quite ready to travel to Portland!  We had such a wonderful time together - I look forward to it every year!

Interesting Time Decorating the Tree...

 

The last picture pretty much sums up our night of decorating the tree.  You know how you imagine how something will go, and it doesn't turn out to be what you imagined?  Well, that was our night tonight.  We have a family tradition of decorating the tree and then drinking hot chocolate while we sit by the tree and listen to Christmas music.  I was excited and ready to decorate long before the kids were ready.  They had to make an urgent trip to the grocery store to get Pillsbury sugar cookie dough (??), and then McKenzie was feeling like she really needed to rush upstairs and do her homework since she was in Seattle all weekend and didn't have time to study.  When we finally started to decorate the tree, Conner and Kelsey kept calling for McKenzie to come down and decorate with us, and then she's up in her room yelling "SHUT UP!!" because she's feeling stressed out about her homework.  They keep laughing at her, and she continues to yell...Not quite how I imagined our evening to go.  She finally came down and hung the last two ornaments that Kelsey saved for her, drank hot chocolate, and took a few pictures.  Thankfully, we had a peaceful dinner around the tree which helped make up for some for some of the Christmas tree decorating chaos :)  

Conner got his license!!

We have a new driver in the house!  Peter picked Conner up early from school yesterday to go take his driver's test.  He passed with flying colors!  He said that he was very nervous, but the DMV lady made him feel very comfortable.  In the morning, I wrote out my prayer so that I could talk to God and one day look back on a huge milestone in his life.  I love reading my prayers years later to remember special and even difficult times.  Conner's first outing was taking Kelsey to McDonald's and to Sami's house for a sleepover.  They left from Grandma and Grandpa's house, and I gasped as I thought he was going to back into Aunt Amy's car!  We stood in the driveway and watched them drive away - it was exciting, scary, and sad (all at the same time)!  It's so hard to believe that Conner is old enough to drive and take on such a huge responsibility.  Peter and I already started worrying when they weren't home by the time that we thought they should be - turns out they got a little lost :).  I started listening for every car driving up our street, wondering if they were home and was relieved when I heard the garage door open.  It will be the first of many nights, I'm sure, when we will wonder and pray that he is safe!

Birthday Present Baking

For Maggie and Abby's birthdays we gave them a certificate for baking at our house.  Kelsey and I enjoyed spending a few hours baking treats with them to give to their friends and families.  We baked toffee, peanut butter blossoms, chocolate-dipped pretzels, and cupcakes.  The girls were adorable, and I had so much fun being with them.  Kelsey was such a great helper!