Christmas

 We celebrated Christmas with my family on Christmas Eve. Grandma didn't think she'd be ready to host yet (they just moved to Lynden,) so the plan was to spend the day at Kim and Thane's. However, Mom and Dad had most of their stuff unpacked and even a few decorations out, so we decided to start the day at their house with stockings and snacks. 

We headed over to Kim and Thane's for lunch and the rest of the fun! We had a fancy Italian themed meal, followed by all the presents and some fun games that Kelsey put together. 

Annaliese made this for Grandpa and Grandma

All of the grandkids went with Grandpa and Grandma back to their house for their annual Christmas sleepover. They stayed up late watching a movie, while the rest of us just went home and went to bed! 

After picking the girls up in the morning, we did our own Christmas before I had to go to work. 

We all had a wonderful Christmas and we are so blessed! 

A little catching up

I'm sitting at home, with a fire going and the rain pouring down catching up on a few things around the house and trying to figure out what gifts still need to be purchased and wrapped for Christmas. And when I say rain pouring down, I mean that it's just after lunch time and we've set a new record for the amount of rainfall today, and there is no sign of it stopping. The Nooksack River is flowing rapidly and approaching flood stage, roads are closed, and the words 'atmospheric river' are all over the news!

I must say, however, we've had a very nice fall! Annaliese played basketball for school and had a great season! She improved a lot and it was fun to watch the girls play. She played half the games on the 8th grade team and the other half on the 7/8 C team. I don't have very many pictures, but she was fun to watch!

We also celebrated her 14th birthday! Annaliese invited a group of friends to go bowling and then come back to our house for pizza and cake. They were a lot of fun to listen to and it was great to hear so much laughter!

They played Twister and Esme won!

And a few pictures from some of the other things we've done recently:

Playing games on Thanksgiving

Sleepover with Mallory

Making Christmas wreaths

Tried Shelby's Christmas sweater on Amarah...

Lighted Christmas Parade!

We make it look like it's cold outside...it was actually very mild (almost 50* and no wind!)

Mom and Dad moved to Lynden!

Mallory, Haleigh, and Annaliese after their Christmas Band Concert (Elias was in it too, but we couldn't find him for the picture)