My Parent's Christmas Party

The Saturday before Christmas held my parent's Holiday party. I just love this party. It used to be held on Christmas Eve, but in recent years my parents moved it to an earlier date so that more people could attend. There is never a dull moment at this party. Santa comes with gifts for all of the kiddos, my mom makes a delicious lasagna, and there is great company all around. The following picture was our best attempt at a family photo.

Santa brought both of the boys rubber band powered wood airplanes!

The evening wouldn't have been complete without the white elephant gift exchange. I have so many pictures, I couldn't narrow them down. So, just trust me when I say that there were some pretty bad gifts getting tossed around this year.

Lots of laughs, lots of good friends, and lots of good food. The way it should be!

The Polar Express

Last year, a blizzard kept us from riding the Polar Express. This year, the weather was perfect. On a Friday we made the trek up north to the train station where we would hop on board the Polar Express. The boys couldn't contain themselves, they were so excited. We were able to eat a very expensive meal (also very gross and disappointing) at the depot before we hopped on the train.

The anticipation of the train's arrival was so fun. I really enjoyed watching the boys' faces.

Once on board we were served hot chocolate and cookies, listened to The Polar Express story, and sang Christmas carols. The ride to the north pole was a bit longer than I had expected.

Once we were at the North Pole, the windows were a bit foggy but we could still see Santa on his sleigh! He got on board and gave each child their very own sleigh bell.

The night was long, the boys were bushed, but the experience was fantastic!

Oh, Christmas Tree

The middle of December brought with it our traditional trip to find our Christmas tree. We packed up the kiddos and headed up north to my parent's cabin. Along for the ride were, once again, the Kings and the Ballards. Much to our delight/chagrin (yay snow to play in - yuk snow to drive in) a blizzard went through the area earlier in the week. We were greeted with snow up to our knees, or hips in the kid's case. B was just thrilled to play in it. The morning after we arrived, we headed out into the forest to find and collect our tree. It was cloudy, but the snow held off while we were there.

Brody and friend were completely contented to throw snow balls at each other while all the dads went to look for our trees. Being 8 months pregnant, I opted to watch the kids instead of trek through the deep snow.

The smaller of the children were less than thrilled about the amount of snow they had to walk in. E complained and didn't move around much and our little pink Ballard felt the same way!

Here is Mr. Ballard with his gigantic tree.

And Mr. King with theirs.

Prince Charming didn't want to stick around for a picture. He is seen here hauling it back to the car.

Meanwhile, E allowed Auntie King to bury him in the snow.

On our way back to the cabin, the Ballards had a tree incident. Glad I was able to capture that on camera!

Back at the cabin, while the children rested, we were able to rest as well.

The trip wouldn't be complete without a fire to stay warm AND roast marshmallows as well as Mr. Ballard's funny expressions!

I also have to note that all of the kids played really well together. There were a few squabbles over trains and cars, but for the most part everyone was happy to play nice.

The weekend, although short, was fantastic. We love spending our time with these other two families and are thrilled that we have started a great tradition.

Without further ado, our 2009 Ponderosa Pine!

2009 Gingerbread House Party

The 3rd Gingerbread Party brought quite the competition. Everyone in attendance had the intention of taking that trophy away from Bridget. As people started arriving they got right to work and started mingling with the other competitors.

Of course, before any of our guests arrived, Prince Charming sliced his finger. What luck! One of our guests was coming from work at the ER. She brought supplies and fixed (more like tortured) him right up!

He says that he was acting, but I can assure you that whatever our nurse was doing to him was painful.

Meanwhile, back at the party - everyone was hard at work.

The first cave in of the evening happened to Dan. His attempt at a log cabin with homemade gingerbread failed.

He did, however, have the inclination to create a cave-in/collapse award. Below you will see Mr. Hanky, the Christmas Poo.

The finished houses were all lovely. Here are Liz and Kieron with their teeny house.

The Ballards with their festive house.

The Kings and their Haunted Gingerbread House.

The Riley's with their creation. I loved the rolo chimney in the back!

The Ryan's with their themed house. They recreated the scene at Tiger Woods' house.

The Nicoluzakis' with their collapsed church. Luckily they received a Mr. Hanky of their own from Dan.

The McLaughlin's. I guess Ryan couldn't wait to eat it.

The Atkinsons with their house.

And yours truly with my peppermint house.

Here is some of the competition on display.

The Tiger Wood's house gave another competitor a run for her money.

But in the end, we crowned a new champion. Aunt J (my sis with friend Katie) modeled her house after our parent's home. The size of the house and the effort that went in to constructing it deserved a trophy.

It was such a fun party and I look forward to doing it again next year. I think I might start planning now.