Christmas Wrap-up...in exactly three pictures.

Ya, I didn't take pictures this year. Christmas has come and gone but I better document it before I forget. We spent Christmas in Idaho with Grandpa Gleed and Uncle Jason. It was such a relaxing weekend with no plans, nothing to do and nowhere to go. We didn't have any snow so we just hung out, ate, watched movies, ate some more, watched football, ate some more and watched more movies. Things were VERY low-key.

Saturday (Christmas Eve) we ran some last minute errands, made meal preparations for the next day, baked Santa some cookies and got ready for the big day. Before bed, McKenna set out cookies and Hot Cocoa for Santa, carrots for the reindeer and sprinkled more reindeer food (oatmeal & glitter) on the front lawn so the reindeer could guide Santa to our house. Then Grandpa read the Christmas Story from the Bible. After reading, the kids got to open their traditional Christmas Eve present, new PJ's! I couldn't talk Tyler into footed pj's so I was a little bummed about that. He's not quite at the age yet where it is cool again to be silly. It took a while for the kids to go to sleep but eventually we got there and everyone was in bed and asleep by 1:00am.The next morning the kids actually slept in and we had to wake THEM up! We had to leave for church by 8:45 so we had to get going. After opening gifts we got ready for church where Grandpa was one of the speakers. He did a great job, but then, he always does. He has a gift for speaking. Then we came home and relaxed.

Lauren worked really hard on this cute poster she made for Chris and I. I loved that it was so thoughtful and something she did all on her own.
We really enjoyed our Christmas break this year. There wasn't any snow which was a bummer but we managed. Chris had the day off before Christmas Eve through Monday, Jan. 2nd from his day job so it was really nice having him home for such a long period of time. Probably, part of what made it so nice was that for Christmas, Chris gave me a week off from all household responsibilities. Fun for me, not so much for him. He was a trooper though and took care of everything, kids, cooking, meal planning, cleaning, shopping, laundry, animals, fighting, bathing, errands, etc. For a WHOLE WEEK! It was really nice to just do what I wanted to do and know that someone else was taking care of things. I think he was a little less depressed to go back to work today than he might otherwise have been. :0)

So Christmas is packed up for another year. I am looking forward to a fresh start. There is just something refreshing about starting a new year. I have a good feeling about 2012.