Pump It Up

As a Christmas gift my parents reserved time for the whole family at Pump It Up. We all had a blast. This is all Gavin and Chloe talked about for weeks before Christmas. If anyone asked Chloe anything about Christmas she would say, "For Christmas we are going to go to Grammy and Gampa's house in Portland and go to Pumpt It UP!" She was so excited. Since it was just our families in the building all of the adults could get on the toys. The adults had fun racing through an obstical course. Ben beat everyone he raced against. The best race to watch was my Mom and sister Sara. There was some pushing and elbowing at the end of that race. Luckly my Dad recorded the whole thing. Here are all the kids right before we left. They are all hot and tired.

Christmas 2008

Even though we were at my parent's house for Christmas this year the kids insisted on bringing their own special plate for Santa. They wanted to make sure that Santa knew where to leave their presents. They left a few cookies for Santa and some carrots for his reindeer. The next morning Gavin and Chloe were thrilled to find that Santa really did know where they were and that he had left them some special gifts they had asked for.

Family Nativity

On Christmas Eve we went over to my sister Michelle's house and our kids and their cousins presented the nativity. Gavin played the part of Joseph and Chloe played the part of an angel. Of course, Grandpa (my dad) recored the whole thing. All of the kids were adorable It was sweet and very typical of any family nativity. This is the second year we have done this and the kids seemed to enjoy it more this time.

Gingerbread Houses and Other Structures

All of my brothers and sisters and their spouses and kids were in Portland for Christmas this year. That is five brothers, four sisters, 5 in-laws, 1 sister's boyfried, and thirteen neices and nephews. Instead of a huge gift exchange, we decided to pack the week with fun activities. One day we built gingerbread "houses". Each family built their own structure. It was fun to see what everyone came up with. The funny thing was that the kids tired out and were done before some of the adults. Gavin, Chloe, Randy and I made a rocket ship. Paul and Camille's family made a chalet complete with a rock chimney. By the time we were all done we had a large table full of gingerbread villages. The kids had fun eating the candy off the houses the rest of the week.

December Birthdays

We spent Christmas week in Portland with my family. While we were there we celebrated almost all of the December birthday's. My brother Joseph didn't want to wait so he had a family party earlier in the month. The birthday party was for the three girls; Laura, Heather and me. Our sister-in-law, Nicole made the cutest snowman cake for us. Later in the week Nicole taught all of the ladies in the family some really cool cake decorating techniques. What a talented girl.

December Snow Storms

It was so fun for the kids to have it snow again and again and again in December, but it got a little old for those of us who had to try and get around town finishing our Christmas shopping. The Kids had fun sledding down our double sloped backyard with their older cousins.

Sunset At Our House

Randy took this picture from our den window. You can see the tops of the mountains and then the fog that has come in. The fog looks like water. It's beautiful.