Christmas Pictures

 My sister and her husband took some nice pictures of our kiddos.  Here are a couple of them in front of the Christmas tree.

Don't we have super cute kids?  

As traditional, the kids opened their stockings first.  There were Pringles and cereal and beef jerky and a 2020 Christmas ornament.  It is always fun seeing what is inside the stockings. 

The kids were all very excited to open presents.  Hannah got pretty absorbed by her new books.

Whitney got a new bike.  That was awesome.

Adam got some costumes from different Mario characters.  He and Hannah wear them quite often.

Megan shows off her new Hogwarts shirt.  Megan has been steadily reading all the Harry Potter books.

Rachel checks out her Hatchimals.  Megan got some too so they have been playing with them together.

I did not get much pictures of Christmas dinner.  But here Hannah sits next to her cousin to enjoy the pre-dinner.  AKA chips, veggies, and different kinds of dip.

Many, many thanks go to my parents for hosting Christmas every year.  We had a wonderful day.

Graham cracker houses and a simple feast

 And some more Christmas pictures for your viewing pleasure.

My mom made graham cracker houses for the kids to decorate.

Whitney did a good job decorating.

Hannah required a lot of assistance, but she had fun.  It is not everyday you get frosting and candy galore placed right in front of you.

Megan took her time making her house look just right.

As did Rachel.

Adam's house was pretty sparse.  He kept sneaking the candy instead of putting it on the house.  The kids enjoyed sneaking candy off their houses over the next couple days.  

We did something new this year and had a simple feast for Christmas Eve.  My parents put a lot of work into the feast.  It was suppose to remind everyone about Jesus.  And everything was amazing.

A simple, yummy potato soup.  

There was even a homemade honey butter and cinnamon butter for the homemade bread.

We sat together as families to enjoy the meal. 

Enjoying dessert.

My dad read the scripture verses that went with each course.  It was a good, reverent meal.  I am glad we did it for Christmas Eve to get us into a proper Christmas spirit.  

Craft Day

 We decided to dedicate a day to crafting.  Everyone loves making Christmas crafts.  The kids borrowed grandpa's paint shirts.

My mom had some wooden figures to make a Mary, Joseph, and Jesus Nativity.

Some of the kids worked slowly and carefully to make sure each figure was perfect.  Some children just loved using all the paint.  I didn't get a final picture of the Nativities, but they turned out cute.  

The craft I planned was to make Christmas trees.  You take a green plate, cut it into three pieces of unequal sizes and staple them together.

The kids liked gluing on the cotton balls and pipe cleaners to form Christmas tree decorations.

The kids also got to pick and paint a tree topper.  I had bells, angels, stars, and snowflakes.

We took a little twine and hung our Christmas trees on the Christmas tree. 

My sister planned a star craft ornament.  

The kids made baby Jesus lying in the manger.  Those also got hung on the Christmas tree.  I think the kids had a lot of fun crafting.  Some of the younger kids ran away and took breaks in between crafts.  They all turned out really well.  We will have to keep crafting each year. 

 

Cupcake Wars and Chopped

 My sister had the fun idea that we should have a cooking competition while people were together for Christmas.  These were a lot of fun and should definitely be continued next year. 

My mom made blackberry cupcakes and blackberry frosting. 

My sister, Kaitlin, and Rachel made these adorable reindeer cupcakes. 

Two brothers made snickerdoodle cupcakes. 

Kylee wins for fancy decorating.  And everyone loves chocolate and peanut butter. 

And these butterscotch cupcakes were mine.  I hope I got a picture of them all, sorry if I missed one.  We had lots of yummy cupcakes to choose from over the next few days. 

My dad had been at work while we baked so he could be our cupcake war judge. He was very fair and thought of a prize for every cupcake. 

Another evening was Chopped night for the guys.  My sister found mystery ingredients - marshmallow creme, graham crackers, canned apples (for pie), and smarties.  I think everyone liked it more than they thought they would.   

The rest of us watched with interest.

Pantry ingredients were allowed, like peanut butter and chocolate chips. 

I saw a lot of smiles between the guys. 

And here are the finished desserts. 

So thanks for the fun ideas, Kylee.  Maybe next year we will add Cutthroat Kitchen to the agenda. 

A Lego Party

 Rachel turned the big 9 this week.  She requested a Lego Party.  I didn't know what to do with that theme but the internet had a plethora of ideas.  Unfortunately, some of these pictures are a little dark.  But it was a fun party. 

You can't have a Lego party without yummy pizza.  My parents kindly brought some pizza to share. 

This is our Lego pinata.  The cups didn't last long, but it was cute. 

It was a Friday night, so it was really dark during the pinata.  No one got hit by the big stick, so a win. 

The kids had to find the big legos around the house. 

They were able to trade them in for some edible lego candy. 

We had a Lego ring toss.  

And the kids all loved moving Legos over with chopsticks. 

Some of us thought they were drumsticks and got upset when they were taken away. 

Rachel doing a pin the head on the Lego man. 

I hid some candy in a tower of Legos.  Each time a 1 or 6 was rolled the kids would try to take pieces off the tower. Adam and Hannah had their own tower so they wouldn't mess up the bigger one for the older girls. 

We did a Lego relay race.  We had to hold a Lego with a spoon and race up the stairs and back to the table.  There was some blatant cheating on both sides of this race. 

Rachel liked her presents. 

Here she gets a clay maker.

Will made a Harry Potter puzzle for Rachel.

Lego brownies were a hit. 

The next day was Rachel's actual birthday.  She requested breakfast in bed, which ended up being the couch.  We made some homemade donuts and scrambled eggs. 

Happy Lego Party!  And now I have a 9 year old.  I think Rachel had a great time at her party.  Now I have a 1 week break before Hannah's birthday party.