Rest, Relaxation, and a New Year!

We didn't have anything scheduled after Christmas as far as traveling anywhere, and that actually turned out to be a good thing. We got to rest, relax and get over the colds/sickness that we've been fighting for the past two months!

Just in time to start the next round of sickness after school starts again. Ha. Ugh.

 We did buy a little trampoline for indoors so that Britton and Clara have something to jump on when they get the urge (other than on my furniture!!!) It may be the best or the stupidest thing we've done...time will tell. ;) So far it's been nice. If Britton is being crazy, I tell him to jump on the trampoline for a few minutes and it wears him down (a little).

 Thanks to aunt Janille, the girls have matching Princess Sophia nightgowns and Elsa nightgowns...Clara is insistent right now that they match every night. Ella is a good sport, so far, with all of it. ☺

Photobomb by a naked Aidan. 

 Cary and I went for a drive with Clara on a gloomy day while the other kids were at Petra.

Clara needs to be potty trained, and she comes in my room in the early morning and wants a clean diaper on, so she'll bring in a dry diaper and some wipes and then takes off her full diaper. One morning she came in while I was sleeping and said, "Come on mom, change my diaper, it'll be fun!"

Right...☺

 We're predictable, but we had our New Years Eve party with some food and games. Clara had put herself to bed long before so Cary stayed home with her. I didn't get very many pictures of the kids playing games because I was helping with the food prep and then looking for a lost kitty (that wasn't ours for a change!) and then we had a stray cat show up on our doorstep. 

December

The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is usually pretty insane. My birthday is on the 4th, grandpa Heber's birthday is on the 2nd, and this year a big party was planned for him at the Border to celebrate.

Hanukkah started December 6 so it was earlier this year and then the annual EHS Christmas Banquet.

 I was testing out my camera to see if I even remembered how to use it. ;)

 Grandpa is 87!

 Mom, Jenna, and Danielle wanted to represent grandpa's love of his chickens and gardening on the cake.

 Britton is my crazy boy

 Clara is spoiled by everyone.

 Walking to school.

 Rehearsal night

 Clara doesn't like to stay up past bedtime.

 The next morning was rough.

 Lighting the Hanukkiah 

 I usually help decorate/ set tables both days for the banquets

 It snowed and the lights on the trees looked so pretty!

I ended up helping in the kitchen on the last night of the banquet.

Clara got an Elsa (Frozen) shirt for Hanukkah and it quickly became the favorite shirt that she wanted to wear morning and night! So we had to take breaks to wash said shirt, and she  wanted to keep track of where it was and when it would be done. 

Last night of Hanukkah

Christmas 2015

It snowed Christmas Eve, so we actually woke up to a white Christmas.

Gwendy brought a new puppy to brunch and the kids thought the puppy was pretty cute.

(A few of these pictures Sharon took, probably the good ones.) ;)

Our Christmas Dinner was small, we had a little under 50 people. I prepared the prime rib this year as well as helping with the decorating, and I did an herb rub on it for a few days, and then Janille helped me figure out cooking times. I think it turned out tasty, I got Dean H's thumbs up and that means something. :D 

Sharon made various flavors of ice cream rolls and that was yummy!

Thankfully, we had a lot of help decorating and it went really fast so we had time to work on other things....like the meal! ☺

After the meal some of the family congregated over at our house for fun and games!