christmas festivities

we had three christmas celebrations and a mini getaway this year. i already shared about the first of the three christmases here. our second was our traditional christmas eve with bryan's family. we alternate who plays host and this year it was bryan's sister jenny who lives just a few blocks away from us.

the girls and PaPa colored as dinner was being made.

when coloring wasn't fun anymore they headed out to show off their tricks on the trampoline.

after dinner we did our gift exchange. a lego book for grant is so perfect. lego pretty much sponsored our kids' christmas this year. they both got several sets.

then after dinner and presents were finished it seemed totally appropriate to teach our kids how to gamble! yikes! have you heard of the game right, left, center? neither had i. my sister in law and her family play it a lot with her husband's family. her kids love it. anyhow, you had to have three one dollar bills to play and both of our kids did so they were in.

as you can see in this picture avery didn't like it when she had to give up her money. she couldn't quite understand the game.

i tried to explain to her that she hadn't lost because she was out of money... but she was too sad for reasoning. so, i happily took her spot in the game.

it ended up coming down to just grant and i. can you believe it? mother and son against each other and boy does he have my competitive spirit.

as you can see, grant won. i tried my best to be a good sport about it.

the rest of the night we all just played and chit chatted.

christmas morning was simple. it was just our family of four at our home. bryan and i don't didn't exchange gifts this year so it was just the kids and they ripped through them quickly!

after the kids opened gifts and played with a few new things we got dressed, packed up and headed to arrowhead to meet up with one of bryan's sister and her family.

we had an adventurous walk full of mini snowman building

and horse petting

this picture is random but i love it.  the kiddos and i sharing a sink as we brush teeth.

the next day we headed to the shopping area near the lake and explored and shopped a little bit.

there wasn't much snow there but we made sure to play in every small pile we could find! the christmas season came and went very fast as it always does. our family had quite a bit of fun and are so thankful for all the family and friends we have to celebrate with. i hope you all enjoyed yourselves and were able to spend some time with those you love.  it will be christmas again before we know it!