P.A.R.T.Y. during Christmas Break!!!

"What fun thing are we doing today?" was the question I heard almost every morning of Christmas break.  And boy did we pack it in!!! 

Flood Frosting Cookie Decorating...

Tyler decorating away

Nate spent a lot of tedious time decorating this cookie with using tiny sprinkles to spell out a couple of words.

We learned Camilla loves sugar cookies so I'm so glad we did this activity together.

NERD BOWLING with the Andersens!!

Truman and Emily

Now that's a lot of bowling feet!

Alysee helping Truman pick out a nerd.  After we each picked out a nerd the color was coordinated with a way we were supposed to bowl (ie. pink nerd - bowl backwards, green nerd - bowl like your daddy, purple nerd - freestyle dancing)

Coop bowling backwards

Chloe!!

My favorite was the freestyle nerd where I got to totally embarrass my kids!

 Hours of games!!!

Luke and Camilla gave the kids "Gang of Four" for Christmas.  They played hours and hours together!

 Crafting!!

These snowglobes were started in Corvallis over Thanksgiving and then Birch helped them all finish them.

 Good food + new cooks!

We enjoyed a super yummy Thai dinner that Luke and Camilla made together for all of us.  

 $2 Smorgasboard

It had been a few years since we had done our $2 Smorgasboard meal - this is done by everyone getting $2 and we went to Safeway.  Each person can pick whatever they want within their $2 budget and then we came home and cooked it all up.  What an assortment!!!  Frozen waffles, sweet potato fries, teriyaki chicken, french bread, oranges, mac and cheese, and two string cheese's all cut up.

 Aunt Jackie's Gingerbread Men

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without Aunt Jackie's gingerbread cookies!

Alysee and Nate's Kid's Camp

Alysee and Nate did a great job putting on two sessions of a Winter Kid's Camp.  Alysee made enough money to buy a phone (with permission from her parents) and Nate was thrilled to make some money too.  I literally had NOTHING to do with the camp this time -- and I loved that.  Both did such a great job preparing for the camp and cleaning up each day.

Alysee really is gifted with the kids and is so patient.

Christmas Eve Singing "Far, Far Away on Judea's Plains"

The boys in the family (minus daddy) just about died when I announced early December that we had been asked as a family to sing on Christmas Eve at church.  It took us several weeks to agree on a song and some pretty painful family scripture times when we practiced together.  Tyler learned that he actually almost enjoyed singing once he learned how to match his voice to Birch's.  Coop is still pretty sure that singing in church is a form of torture.  He suffered through and survived.  Chloe and Alysee thought it was the best thing ever singing in church!  We roped Camilla and Luke in to join us as well!

Hosting Luke and Camilla!!!!! 

Our #1 favorite activity was hosting Luke and Camilla!  It didn't matter if we were going to watch the new Star Wars together, drinking milk shakes while looking a lame Christmas lights around town, double buckling all the way to the Tri-cites,  shopping trips, putting on a group date night with Tyler, or singing in sacrament meeting -- we LOVED it all!!!