Christmas #2

We spent the actual Christmas weekend at David’s parents' house, along with his sisters and their families.  It is always a full house and we have a great time.  The cousins all get to play together, the adults get to catch up, and grandpa and grandma have all of their grandkids in one place.  Being able to get the whole family together is a blessing.

One of our favorite traditions is leaving the grandkids with grandpa and grandma while the adult siblings and their spouses get a night out together.  It is usually just for a meal, but it gives us time to visit, laugh, and take a break from the kids.  We started this tradition a while back and have continued it no matter what the weather has been like.  Of course, we can’t complain about the weather this year: it was 40+ degrees everyday through the weekend.

The kids enjoyed their time together, but they also enjoyed the gift opening.  Everyone wanted to play with each other's gifts just as much as they enjoyed their own.  We opened gifts on Christmas Eve, so they had several days to play with them before coming home.

Each of the girls opening one of their gifts.  They won the award for getting the gifts with the most pieces.  Almost every gift they opened had a lot of pieces to it.

Everyone opened their stockings on Christmas morning before we went to church.  After church and lunch, the pastor of David’s parents’ church rode their horses over to the house so the kids could see them.  All the kids loved it.

Bria and some of the cousins looking at one of the horses.

Bentley looking at the pastor’s dog with Aunt S.

What a great holiday!  I don’t know if I said this in the last post, in case I didn’t:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas at Home

Saturday morning we had our little Christmas with our girls.  We had company coming later in the day (and staying for a few days).  Then the girls were going with David’s parents until we go there for Christmas.  Saturday was the last day before Christmas that we could have our celebration.

The girls each took their items out of their stockings and opened their present.

This is the first year we have actually had something in their stockings—slippers for Bentley and kid friendly scissors for Bria.

Bria was reading her tag while Bentley got started opening her gift.

Bentley’s doll house castle.

Bria’s doll house stable.

The girls played with them quite a bit after opening them (especially Bria).  We hoped they wouldn’t fight over them since they were very similar, but Bria wanted both of them all to herself.  Bentley lost interest after a little while and Bria got her way.

After the gift opening, the girls and I made some Christmas cookies for the church Christmas program on Sunday evening.  David and I participated in it again this year, so all the grandparents took care of the girls while we performed.

The girls putting sprinkles on the Christmas cookies.  They loved it.  Bentley just wanted to keep going and figured out how to get the lid off of the sprinkles all by herself (Uh-Oh!).  They also helped me use the stand mixer and add the ingredients to the bowl, but I didn’t get pictures of that.

Little Explorer

As the cold weather becomes more frequent it is harder to find ways for the girls to be entertained.  When the weather is decent enough I make sure they get outside, or if there is snow on the ground they get all bundled up and head out.  But what is there to do when it is just plain cold and there is no snow?  They have spent a lot of time coloring, building jungle-gyms out of all the couch cushions and pillows, and looking at books.  Sometimes one of them will get dressed up in something silly from the small assortment of clothes and various hats that are in their toy box.  Yesterday, Bentley decided to be an explorer.

Bentley dressed herself this way, but usually it is Bria who dresses Bentley up. 

Bria has been using the Christmas aprons that grandma brought and putting two on at a time, one backwards, and pretending they are dresses.  I didn’t get a picture of that one yet.  They have entertained themselves so far, but their attitudes tell me they are already tired of being cooped up.