The Week of Christmas

It was nice having a whole week off before Christmas this year. We got to do some fun stuff.

Monday night we had our annual gathering at my parents' with a visit from Santa. Here are the kids' shots with Santa:

Nate did really well. He mostly just sucked his thumb to get through the ordeal....
Natalie requested her "pony box"--the big box of my little ponies she saw at Target.
Elizabeth asked for rollerblades and a winter dress....

(My brother or sister-in-law--not sure which--took that last picture and you can see the difference. I am either a terrible photographer or they have a way better camera.)

I had to include this one because of the scowling kids:

A little bit better:

My baby Nate

Tuesday night we got to go to a Kings/Warriors game with the Keys. It was a lot of fun. I hadn't been to one in forever (I went all the time in high school). It was a little disappointing to see how far the Kings have fallen but at least it was a good game. Unfortunately they blew a double digit 4th quarter lead and fell apart during OT. One upside: I caught a little basketball they threw into the audience! The biggest upside: hanging out with Justin and Whitney. They have now left us and moved to Utah. We are sure going to miss the late night talks over bowls of ice cream!

Wednesday we drove up to the mountains to stay with my brother and his family. We just stayed one night but it was a lot of fun. The kids had fun playing with their cousins Andrew and Ivy. They also loved seeing snow again and played for quite awhile. They built a snowman with Daddy and enjoyed sledding down a little track behind the cabin.

Of course they loved eating snow most of all:

This guy had fun, too:

We stayed the night there. The adults had fun playing hand and foot that night. That is an Allen family game that I had not played in far too long. It was a lot of fun.

We played a little bit the next morning and then headed home. Thanks for letting us come visit with you, Matt & Melissa!

Now, on to Christmas Day...

The tree:

(Notice the half-decorated tree common in homes with curious toddlers.)

What Santa brought:

We actually had to wake the kids up at 7 since we had a busy day ahead. We read the Christmas story and then they got to check out their stockings and open presents...

Lizzie was thrilled with her winter dress:

Natalie loved her pony box:

Nate couldn't care less about the huge stuffed dog Santa got him. I thought for sure that would be a hit since he loves dogs. I could just picture him tackling and snuggling it but he barely looked at it.

He did love the golf clubs that his sisters got him
(and Daddy loved teaching him):

After we opened presents, we hurried to get ready so we could go down to my parents'. Matt and Melissa made some yummy pancakes for us and we had fun spending some time there. Then, they watched the kids for us while Joe and I headed to the wedding of some friends of ours. Yes, a Christmas Day wedding. It wasn't necessarily my first choice in how to spend the day but it ended up being a good day. Busy but good. Anyway, so we went to the ceremony and then drove back down to get the kids for the reception. I even got a quick plate of some of my dad's yummy prime rib when we picked them up.

The kids actually loved the reception. We were serenaded by a mariachi band, stuffed full of food, and they loved the dancing.

Well, mostly just Natalie...

She was fearless. Elizabeth and I talked each other into going out to dance for a little bit, too. Nate also got some good dancing in....

We stuck around so Joe could give the toast. He gave it in Spanish, which was very gutsy since his Spanish is limited and it was an almost 100% Spanish-speaking audience. He did a great job (from what we could tell :). It was a fun night.

I even got to still have my turkey dinner on Sunday night when we had some friends over. That was another fun night.

It was a great week. :)