Merry Christmas!

For a long time, whenever Nate asked Grandpa what he wanted for Christmas, Grandpa always said "NATE!" Nate said he was going to hop in a box and get mailed to CA for Grandpa. But since that wouldn't quite work, we went for a wrapped box at the airport. Ash and Sadie ran ahead to meet G and G and said that Nate stayed home with Dad. So they were really surprised when they saw a box sitting there for them to open. Nate had to wait a few minutes and I couldn't believe how still he was. A couple times I poked my head to tell him that they were almost here. Nate would reply "Close it, Mom!!!"

It was a grand surprise! Sooooo fun to have Mom and Dad come for Christmas! Grandpa wore his reindeer ears so the kids could spot him.

We had a birthday party for Grandma while they were here. We didn't have 58 candles, so Dave had the idea to use our 6 and 3 candles to make 63 and then a minus sign, and then 5 candles = 58!

We played this trick at our Christmas party as well. It went over so well, we thought we should try it on Mom and Dad. We wrapped up a box with our snake in it. Rollo is getting big and heavy. Dave snapped the picture at just the right time. Dad dropped/threw the box and and the snake fell out and landed right under Mom's foot. It was quite a moment.

The girls spent a long time making a movie theatre for us. We had movie tickets (with ticket stubs returned to us), all sorts of snack choices, blanket rentals, etc.

The girls with their special dolls from special Karla!

For Grandma's birthday party, Sadie planned a talent show. Nate's talent was telling a dragon story. He got so into the story and acted out what the dragons were doing. Sheriff Dad and Nate came to the rescue at the end and after the people thanked them, they replied "Just doin' my duty."

Mom brought nativity costumes for us to use. Nate was the donkey and took his job very seriously. We heard "hee-haw" the rest of the night.

The day after G and G came, we woke up to a white Christmas Eve and the snow stuck the whole time they were here. That made for a couple snow walks around the neighborhood, buildling a snowman and sledding at the junior high.

Harry Potter snowman...attacking Ashlyn.

Sledding!

Stories with Grandpa!

Ash and I were racing to finish our books. The race started at the beginning of the books. I was reading Harry Potter and Ash was reading Anne of Green Gables. She was ahead the whole time but I came in for the win at the end. We were within 8 pages of eachother for the finish. The girls were about to go to bed, and I knew Ash would climb in bed and read to the finish line. So I ignored the dishes and we sat down to the final race. It was lots of fun. She wanted to win, but was sure happy to finally have her mom reading Harry Potter.

The girls and I made a special quilt for Grandma and Grandpa with pictures and drawings from all of the cousisn. It was lots of fun to make and even more fun to give!