Hike

We had incredibly nice weather the day after Christmas! I wanted the kids to ride their bikes while Pat and I ran but Owen wasn't interested. Paige didn't want to ride her bike either but she did want to join us for the running part! She ended up mostly running 2.5 miles! I was very impressed! Later, we still wanted to enjoy the weather so we all went on a hike. The kids forged their own path up the side of a mountain (probably more like a hill but it was so big that the word hill doesn't seem right either). 

Richey Christmas

I didn't get a ton of pictures this year and I need to gather some more from people who did! We all met up around 1 or 2 for a meal (pasta!) and then gathered around the tree to give out presents. Owen and Paige used to make gifts for everybody but for the past couple of years we've been taking them to the store to pick out gifts for everyone and I love seeing what they choose. They love giving them out too! Everyone was beyond generous with gifts this year but my favorite part is watching the chaos and seeing balls of wrapping paper flying toward the trash bag, occasionally hitting someone who was trying to get to the tree or to a chair:) Afterwards, we lounged around and played games until it was time to head home, much to Paige's dismay! She hates when the holiday festivities are over! 

Christmas Morning

The kids were up and ready to open presents around 7 am this year. It's always funny to me that they have to walk by the living room to get to our room but we always make them wait on the stairs as if there is going to be a big reveal that they didn't just walk past:) I took my time getting the quiche in the oven and making my tea before the kids ran down to take it all in properly. This year we also all had matching pajamas which added an extra element of hilarity:)

Christmas Eve

Our church visit was short lived when Pat came down with a bad headache maybe 15 minutes into the service. We left early after communion and headed home for Pat to take a nap for a couple hours. The kids entertained themselves by tossing an apple back and forth using forks which hilariously resulted in sprays of apple juice all over the carpet! Pat recovered in time to say goodnight to the kids and help with the presents and ended his night with a cheese and cracker platter we didn't have time to set out earlier in the day

Meyer Christmas!

We had a bigger crowd for our Meyer Christmas this year with Pat's siblings and Lauren's husband in town! We started our celebration off with a late lunch. We made two soups this year, Cheesy Vegetable Chowder and Slow Cooker Chicken with Wild Rice and both were great although I put a little too much chicken into the second one! Then we moved onto presents, dessert (Pat's family brought apple cake, fudge and cookies!) and hanging out before we had to rush to get ready for church at 6pm!

Gingerbread...Houses?

Time for the holiday wrap-up posts that always ends up extending into the new year. Our elf on the shelf (Jingle Bell Elfington) brought us a gingerbread house kit with four tiny houses to build and decorate! You'd think smaller would be easier but they were just as difficult to put together as a bigger size. Maybe more so? Technically the directions say to glue the pieces together, wait a few hours and then decorate but none of us were feeling that patient. We all struggled and most of us made it through:) Owen got 3/4 of the way through when his collapsed and he gave up and started eating it. Paige, Pat and I finished but I accidentally caused Pat's to collapse when I attempted to move it. He had done a pretty impressive job too!

Baking/Birthday Party

It sometimes gets tricky fitting in our tradition of baking a Christmas dessert but I'm always glad we make time for it. We made snowman cake pops this year and they didn't quite come out how we wanted but if we ever made them again we'd know what to do a little differently! We didn't freeze them long enough and should have but a bit of frosting on the stick so it wouldn't come out when we tried to dip them in the white coating. Paige did all the decorating though and they were adorable! I wish I had gotten a big group picture of everyone who came later. We ate a good meal of pizza and salad and had plenty of cookies and desserts to go around. Then we gave out birthday gifts and Christmas gifts and played a fun game called Things in a Box, in which I lost horribly.

Ugly Sweater Party

Saturday, after Paige had performed the nutcracker twice and Owen had a soccer game, we went home for about an hour and then headed out to Owen's soccer teams Ugly Sweater Christmas party! We were all kind of exhausted and not so much in the party mood but once we got there and were surrounded by friends and good food we changed our minds:) We had planned to stay about an hour but ended up staying until 11:30! So much fun!

Nutcracker!

Nutcracker time again! The studio took the year off from staging the production last year so Paige was excited to get back into it again this year. She still had the option too, next year (or whenever they do it again) she'll be required to participate because of the level of ballet she is at. She was cast as an angel and a polichinelle again, and is really hoping she gets something else next time. This was the third time she's had those roles. They did switch up the polichinelle dance though and it was more of an acro dance, which she loved! Here are a billion pictures in no particular order. 

Paige and Adri, the snow queen

Paige and her faces:)

Hanging out before they had to get dressed

With grandma and grandpa

3 little polichinelles

Paige had everyone fooled as an angel;)

Ready to perform but not on until Act 2!

Still hanging out

With Aunt Jamie

Saturday morning came very early after performing Friday night

With the Meyers!

It took the girls 3 or 4 tries to coordinate this one

Still ready!

Goofball

On stage

Representing three different roles