January 1, 2012

Christmas break has been great.  We had the first week to ourselves. We made fudge and truffles and delivered them to friends and neighbors.  We slept under the Christmas tree. We watched Christmas movies and the kids played with the Deans a lot. Our favorite thing that week was going to the Springs Preserve for their Christmas party.  They had a train ride and reindeer rides and a big blow-up slide. The weather was great. The kids all loved it.  And we bought year passes so we'll be able to go check out other things there later in the year.

My mom and Grandparents came Thursday night. They helped me get the beds ready and do the grocery shopping. And then everyone got here Friday afternoon.  Saturday we made a candy train and acted out the nativity. And we all opened one present.

Christmas was wonderful.  The kids were all happy with what they got.  Bob was very surprised to get his Ipad and he's loving it.  And he got me a Kindle fire. That's been fun for me too.  It's so handy to be able to read on it; especially if I want to read in bed and Bob is already asleep.

Monday we went to Valley of Fire and the lights at the Speedway.  My mom bought us all matching clothes so we could take a family picture.  So we did a big group shot and we also got our family and individuals of the kids to put on our wall.

We spent lots of time at Cram middle school across the street playing tennis, basketball, kickball, and bikes. The weather was great.  We also went shopping a few times and watched movies at night. And we ate a ton!

Everyone left on Friday this week.  Bob and I both worked for the whole afternoon to get the house cleaned and put back together after having 20 people living in our house for a week.  Saturday we played with a lot of the new toys we got for christmas: tetherball, twister, uno roboto, snap circuits.  We also had sparklers and popits and watched the Smurfs movie as part of our New Years eve festivities.  And we held our first annual Polar Bear club.  Bob, Rachel, Aaron and I all jumped in our 38 degree pool.  It was pretty fun.  Then we all got hot chocolates from Starbucks.