Merry, Merry Christmas!

It was wonderful to wake up to a White Christmas! It has been snowing most of the week and so we had a beautiful view out the window. . .everything covered in white fresh snow, and even more coming down.

The boys were fabulous and didn't wake up until about 8:00! They were excited to look in their stockings to see what Santa had brought. When they had seen everything, Jay passed out the wrapped gifts from family.

The boys are at a great age. . .they think any gift is the best thing ever! We love to see their joyful faces as they open up each gift look so excited each time.

The batman action figures were the biggest hit, but they did enjoy the sock monkeys that mommy stayed up all hours of the night sewing! I don't know why each year I think I should make some sort of impossible craft project. They were fun, but a lot of work and then, as always, they didn't quite turn out the way I would have liked.

Tammy and Kelly had us for Christmas and gave me and boys aprons, so we put them to good use making crepes for breakfast.

We spent the rest of the morning sledding at the Trian Depot and building a giant snowman in the backyard. Then it was time to get ready and head into Nampa for Christmas dinner with the Morgans. We had prime rib with all the fixings and we stuffed ourselves accordingly.

The boys enjoyed opening more gifts and watching to see what everyone else got. We had brought their jammies to show off and so we got them dressed, bundled up again, and thankfully had clear roads for the drive home.

It has really been a lovely Christmas season. I'm writing this on Saturday and we have enjoyed another day of snow. At 2:43, it is just barely tappering off. What a beautiful season we are enjoying.

Hope everyone is enjoying the season as well. Happy Holidays!

Christmas Eve Traditions

We spent Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa Briner's. This is a family tradition brought over from the Closners. Katie and Bryce were in town with their girls, so we had a very full house. We ate the traditional steak dinner, thanks to Jay's amazing BBQing skills. Joe was trying to get the pellet stove working, so Jay was volunteered to do the cooking. We ate at two tables to accomodate all of the family and enjoyed good food and conversation.

After dinner was finished and the dishes were done, we got the grandkids dressed up to perform the nativity. The kids all looked great and Nikolai was able to read the story this year, which he really enjoyed. It was fun to have enough little people to play the parts.

We played games and then had the kids open up their grandparent gifts. Grandma makes them pj bottoms every year. They ooohed and aaahed about their jammies and Hot Wheels cars. We got them dressed up in their new jammies, took some, well several, pictures and then bundled up and headed for home.

We drove home in near white out conditions and were happy when we were finally safe and warm in our house!

STICHES!

I came home from work on Wednesday to find that Aleksi had tripped and hit his forehead on one of the kitchen chairs. Jay had bandaged it up so I didn't see the wound until that evening when we were changing the bandaged. After much deliberation after looking at it closely, we decided that we should probably take him into the Emergency Room for stiches.

Jay took him in around 8:30 and they were back by 10:30 with five stitches in Aleski's forehead. Jay said he didn't cry at all and did very well.

I can't believe one of our kids has gotten stiches already! I've been lucky enough to never have been badly injured, although Jay is another story. I guess it is inevitable with kids, but still sad to see the little guy all sewn up.

I took him in today and they cut the stitches out, so now we just need to keep ointment on it and hope it doesn't scar too badly. It is under his bangs, so even if there is a small scare, it shouldn't be visible unless he joins the army.

Gingerbread Houses

We spent last Sunday at Kim's house celebrating my birthday, eating lots of yummy food and making gingerbread houses. The gingerbread houses has been a tradition that Mom started a few years ago with the grandkids.

We're still working out the kinks with the houses. . .they tend to always fall apart. Nikolai was creative this year and just made his house with a flat roof.

The kids loved putting the candy of the houses with icing, and were pretty good about not eating all of the decorations. :)

The houses didn't last long once we brought them home. . .the boys really wanted to eat them and we said okay, since they aren't good if they've been out too long.

But they sure were cute while they lasted.

Nikolai's Music Program

Nikolai performed in the Veteran's Day Concert in November. The Kindergarten through Third Grade students performed patriotich songs and many of the kids had parts to say. Nikolai had a part to say and did the whole thing with his eyes closed. I thought that he was consentrating on remembering the part that he had memorized, but we got a different story when we asked him about it later. He explained to us that he closed his eyes so that he wouldn't cheat by looking at the part on the music stand! Nikolai also sings in the volunteer choir and they performed a few songs as well, so he did a lot of singing since they did the program twice. . .once in the morning and once in the afternoon. Nikolai was pretty excited about the program and had a great time performing in front of the crowd.

Vacation!

Jay and I are in Seattle having a wonderful, although quick, vacation. We left on Friday around 11:00 and arrived in Seattle around 6:00. We're staying with Darby and Rob, my cousin and her husband. They live on the west side of Queen Anne in a beautiful home that they have redone.

We headed out to downtown this morning by foot and enjoyed the brisk air and beautiful views of the sound. We walked through the sculpture garden, hit the art museum and the Experience Music Project, and took a quick stroll through the market. We ate lunch at a street front Italian resteraunt and enjoyed some warm food after so much outdoor exposure.

We're now warm and cozy inside the house and getting ready for a homemade pasta dinner, courtesy of Darby the Chef.