Christmas 2013

Christmas was very special this year! Grandmom and Grandad were with us, which was a first, and we had some sweet times all together with both sets of grandparents. Besides Christmas Eve service at church, we did our annual girls viewing of "White Christmas," spent some time sharing readings and crafts, ate inordinate amounts of food, and of course we had a ball opening gifts. Grant was over the moon about getting thirteen Nerf guns (Daddy and I bought most of them from a Craigslist lot), and Hope was very excited about the Barbie RV. We spent many afternoons playing toys in the week after Christmas!

The previous late night caught up to Grant!

The day after Christmas, Grandmom and Grandad went home and we busied ourselves packing for a getaway to the lake! Like the last time we went, two years ago, it was a cozy time with my extended family. We laughed til we cried playing a game called Telestrations, which Hope was great at even though it was mostly adults playing and it's a reading/writing game. I was so impressed with her! We went snow tubing, even though it was drizzly that day. Not ideal weather, but fun anyway! Grant was thrilled to discover that the mountain coaster he so enjoys during the summer was in fact still open (we told him it would surely be closed for the winter). We watched Hope, Grant, and their cousins open gifts and we all did a gag gift exchange, which was plenty silly and fun too. Grant spent most of the weekend shooting the marshmallow gun he got from Aunt Cathy and Uncle Bill. Despite our vigilant efforts, I'm sure we left dozens of marshmallows scattered around our rental house.

 

I'm so glad that we got to see so much of our families for Christmas this year. And, as always, I'm beyond grateful for the family I was raised in, that my children get to grow up with my parents and Aunt Cathy and Uncle Bill too, and that they have so many grandparents who love them!