Christmas and more

 

This Christmas was the whitest I ever remember having in my time in living in Washington.  We so enjoyed it.  We had planned on two weeks of hustle and bustle before the holidays, but thanks to the snow it was all canceled and we all stayed home and hibernated, nothing I love more!!!!  I really enjoyed the time we got to spend just being together and doing nothing........  Tristan was fascinated by the snow.

We made sugar cookies and decorated them and then took them to Daddy's office, Seri's Voice teacher and Shakespeare teacher and our good friends.  Tristan loves the cookies but for some reason they put him to sleep.

 

 

At geography club we gave presentations centered on "Christmas around the world".  The Olson's presented on how different religions celebrate Christmas in the Holy city of Bethlehem.

After the presentations the children separated.  Here are the older children.....

The middle children made Christmas "poppers".

And the little ones hung around the food table waiting for someone to feed them!

 

We have a family that are good friends and we are so fortunate to know them.  Their kids all pretty much match up to ours so it makes it really easy and nice to go places with them.  It is humorous to watch them all pair off on their own accord.

Here are Isaac and Sariah.........

Michael pairs off with Anna and Jessica, one is a little older than him, the other a little younger.....

And Seri and Sam........those two......well, that's another blog entirely.

Sariah has her own friends that have literally grown up together since they were about two months old...  Their birthdays are all within two weeks.

Not only do our kids mesh together nicely but both of my babies absolutely adore Miss Lori.  In fact, Riah can get pretty territorial over her.

Next, the girls and I headed off to the fire station to wrap presents for their annual toys for Joy program.  We wrapped for three straight hours, pretty insane but also a lot of fun!!  It should be mandated that all toys be wrapped in square packages however.

We had a Christmas party at church and thankfully Santa showed up.  Riah has been obsessed with him all season.  Every day, every hour, she asks if we can see Santa.  Any time we get dressed in coats she says "i go see Santa?"  Then all of a sudden she declared that Santa was "scary" but she still wanted to see him.  One day Michael told her that Santa was coming and she spent the whole day at the window waiting for him.  I have never before had a child be Santa Crazy.

Christmas eve is spent at my Aunt and Uncles house with my side of the family.  the younger kids get stockings and the adults and two older girls have a gift exchange which some years can get pretty heated.  We then play games and just enjoy each others company. This post has ended up being long and I am ready for bed, I'll post more tomorrow, or the day after, or Feb............