Christmas Day and the Rest of Christmas Break

Our Christmas morning was much lower key than usual since we celebrated a day early. It was the first time in years that we slept past 6:00am. We all got up, finished packing, showered and ate a yumy breakfast while we watched the Disney World Christmas parade. 

After breakfast, we went over to Grammy and Papa Joes' house to celebrate Christmas with them. The kids wasted no time opening presents. 

Nathan got a big football toss game that we was excited about. 

Katherine has been asking for this stuffed Cheetah for months. I didn't realize how special it would be to her until she opened it. 

She was also excited about getting a Gymnastics Barbie Doll

Nathan had a football theme for his Christmas gifts this year. 

Samuel's big gift was a new bike!

Elisabeth got a lot of art/craft kit and supplies. 

Thankfully, it was a beautiful day on Christmas, and Samuel got to practice riding his new bike. It's a little big for him, so it took a little bit of getting used to.

While we were playing outside, Katherine insisted on driving my parents' go kart. That girl always has us laughing!

We ate a delicious lunch together and spent some time playing games and with the kids' new toys for the afternoon. 

We left about 4:00 to head out to Edmond to celebrate another Christmas with Matt's family. The kids were so excited to celebrate with their cousin. 

They were so cute playing together. Katherine adores not being the little kid when she's with Abby

We opened gifts on Sunday morning. Elisabeth picked out a toy picnic basket for Abby at a consignment store and insisted she had to have it. Katherine wrapped it for her all by herself. I love their thoughtfulness. 

Katherine was excited for even more gifts- She got a lot of barbie dolls/accessories this Christmas. 

Elisabeth got all the Little House on the Prairie books. She's been working hard on her reading skills, and I know she'll be able to read them by herself soon. 

Nathan got Legos, of course. He got fewer than normal this Christmas, so he was especially excited for a new, bit set. 

Samuel got the biggest surprise of the day- a keyboard! He had expressed an interest in learning to play the piano several times in the last few months, so I added a keyboard to his wish list. He never directly asked for one for Christmas, so he was happily surprised. 

He immediately started practicing. I'm hoping he sticks with it!

Our family got Abby a beloved ice cream cart. The girls had a ball playing together with it. 

We spent the day playing at the park and eating lunch together with family. 

That evening the kids and I continued our travels to Weatherford to spend a couple of days. We enjoyed the quality time with Granny, Grandaddy and Aunt Sydney. We played lots of fast track and watched The Price is Right. It was a great visit. 

Monday afternoon we spent a few hours playing at the Evetts' house too. I'm glad we could squeeze that visit in. The kids love playing with their friends, and I love catching up with Mindy. 

Tuesday before we left town, we spent a few hours with Momoo. The kids opened their last Christmas presents and got to play with them at her house for a bit. 

While we were there, the kids also got to play with their cousin, Kolby and try out his Christmas present- a VR headset. There was a lot of user error, but they still had fun.

We drove home to Broken Arrow Tuesday evening after a marathon of Christmas celebrations which were wonderful.

We spent Wednesday and Thursday getting the house in order, Christmas taken down and everything unpacked and put away.

Friday, we were ready to celebrate again. We spent New Year's Eve with the Shondelmyers. Brooke cooked us breakfast for dinner, and the kids played video games for most of the night. Their kids got a Nintendo Switch for Christmas, so they all had fun playing together. 

The adulst pllayed board/card games for most of the night too. It's one of our favorite things to do, so we were happy. We played Quix, Code Names, and Blokus.

The big boys spent the evening playing Roblox of course! It's their thing.

We rang in the new year with New York at 11:00 with sparkling cider and some of our favorite people.

We are thankful for a healthy, happy 2021 for our family and looking forward to what's in store in 2022. After our toasts, we split up kids for a sleepover- We took the boys (and Katherine) and Elisabeth slept over with Kaydence. We reunited the next day for lunch and a Cowboy Fiest Bowl (nail biter) victory. What a great way to start 2022!