Holiday Cheer

I had my Christmas shopping done and under the tree two weeks before Christmas was here so I was pretty excited and eager. And then there was Charlie who thought the presents were interesting for about 3 seconds then found something he cared more about. I love that each holiday my kids get to participate more and experience the magic. I know I am now in the years that people long for and then miss as they go too fast and I keep that in mind as we are making traditions and involving our children. This was also the first year that I really felt we could introduce the nativity story to Charlie and have him comprehend it to some degree. He also would participate more in singing Christmas songs, decorating the tree, picking out and wrapping presents, and preparing for Santa. I already know that I will miss this when my kids are grown so I really have to make these years count.

Anyway, here are some event from our celebration

Santa makes house calls for us :) This was a week or so before Christmas but it was fun to have Santa come over. Miles cried when Santa walked in but warmed up quickly, at least when Max was holding him, 

On Christmas eve we kept with tradition and went to my Green Grandma's house to eat dinner and open gifts. I like getting together with this side of the family and it doesn't happen enough....

The best part...I didn't have to watch my kids and I wasn't worried one bit! I have the best cousins!

Also, I didn't pull my camera out at all here so I took my dad's photos.

My cousin Andrew who is about 8 years old was thrilled when Charlie came over. (He has 5 sisters) and he played great with him the whole time!

This is my cousin Carolyn who is amazing because she will graduate high school next year with an associates degree and then go on a 9 month Catholic mission trip to Ireland. It's so refreshing to know such amazing young people. 

And here is most of the group. We were still missing my brother's family and my grandma and Dad and Uncle Gary aren't in the picture.

My grandma was just as generous as always picking out individual gifts for all her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. 

Just before leaving, my uncle Gary said he had something in the garage for our boys so Max went down to get it. It turns out that he had recreated a rocking chair that he had purchase a couple years ago that I was completely in love with. Here's Charlie in the chair right after they got it. I threw out some not so subtle hints that I would love a rocking chair for my boys. 

We were surprised by this kind gift that he had been working on for a long time.

We then went home and got the boys in bed right away because I was incredibly excited to get the house in order for Santa to come. I decided I had to clean first before I set up any toys or filled the stockings. We got the kitchen and living room all in order and even set the table so we would be ready for Breakfast. 

The night was rough though. Charlie woke up screaming and with a fever. Luckily Miles had the best nights sleep he's had in awhile. Charlie ended up in our bed and threw up once. It was a rough night with little sleep for Max, Charlie and me. When I woke up with Miles I fed him and Max and Charlie were sleeping peacefully so I decided to let them sleep even though I was incredibly excited to go downstairs with them. Miles and I ended up going downstairs so we wouldn't wake Max and Charlie so Miles got an early peek at some Christmas gifts. 

We also got breakfast all ready and on the table and Charlie and Max were still sleeping. Miles eventually went down for a nap so I crawled into bed too. 

Charlie just saw this picture and said "I wanna be sick again!" haha! Daddy cuddles are THAT good!

Miles only slept for about 40 minutes so Max and I woke up and were noisy enough that Charlie woke up too. :) and then we finally got to go downstairs as a family...here is a video of that. 

The chair that Charlie thought he got actually has nothing to do with Christmas, Max had been saving up his personal fund and got it on Christmas eve. 

We had some fun looking at some surprises and checking out our stockings.

We then had to reheat our breakfast. We filled out bellies, all except Charlie who didn't have much of an appetite.

When it was time to open gifts Miles was all about eating the paper and Charlie was somewhat zoned out and when we told him it was his turn to open a present he said "you do it" But he did make this great gift tower.

Exhausted but still not done. Poor kid, He didn't really express the excitement that I was anticipating, hopefully next year he'll feel a lot better.

We decided to stay home and have a cuddle, movie day. Well Max went out and did some yard work. You can't stop him from working...ever...even when his boss gives him a 5 day weekend. Grandpa Roemhildt came over and spoiled us with more gifts. In the evening, my family was gathering at my Red Grandma's for turkey dinner .Charlie wasn't feeling up to going so I went with Miles so I could eat and bring a plate of food back for Max. We had a good visit at Red Grandma's house and Miles was the only little kid. We spent some time looking at old photo albums which I always think is fun.

The day after Christmas, Charlie woke up at 10am and his fever was gone. He went over to Max's uncle Jay's house for Christmas dinner.

Luckily August brought some toys so they weren't just playing with Jay's old ripped up underwear like at Thanksgiving...you think I'm joking??

And then Santa decided to crash our party.

NO matter how old you get...whoopie cushions are still pretty funny..especially on Santa's lap.

Apparently Santa thinks these boys have been naughty

All the cousins!

We had a good time with family but Miles was done so we went home. Miles screamed on the way and acted like he was choking/coughing/throwing up the whole way home. He ended up waking up at 5am with a fever and is still working on getting over that now. Oh yeah, and Max has a fever now too. Geeze. I guess I'm next! But anyway, we really did have an amazing holiday and it was so fun to have more involvment with my little boys. Now we'll just hope for a healthy Christmas 2015

The Last Hurrah Bus Day

One of our most favorite family traditions is our bus day! Our whole family meets at the Bus Barn in the morning and we ride the bus all day long to different family members' homes to eat and do some Christmas activities. We have done a progressive dinner for as long as I can remember and the bus was introduced to our tradition in 1998. From the looks of things, my mom may not be working for the bus company much longer so this was likely to be our last Bus Day. We tried to make the most of it and I tried to do my best to document it. 

The morning started off great with my cousin Sam reading his mission call. He's been called to Russia (I have no idea how to spell the name of the mission so I wont try) He will be leaving in February. Throughout the day I tried to remember the Russian words I learned in Armenia and I could only seem to remember Ice Cream and Okay. 

The first stop  on our Bus tour was our house. We were eating fruits and veggies there and my uncle brought cinnamon rolls. We were packed in my house like sardines and I took this moment to go feed Miles' up in his room so I don't really know much of what happened here except for the food got eaten.

We then went down to Aurora to have incredibly delicious Gyros at the Packhams' house. Oh they were good.

We also got to play Jingo and win great Prizes. Charlie is still pretty excited about his new ball and his ninja turtle Frisbee,.

Then we got back on the bus and Miles got a quick turn driving the bus. We has all sorts of giddy.

The drive from Aurora to Vancouver is the longest stretch so many people took this time to nap.

I think it's funny that babies and children have all these restrictions and guidlines on how they should be buckled into the car but throw them in a bus and it's a free for all. This boy loved the freedom.

I liked that Gwenevere sat with us.

There was food on this kids face all day long. That's allowed on bus day...and it usually happens on every other day too.

SO then Max fell asleep and Charlie sat there wondering what to do with him.

He played with his face and hat.

Timmy and Gwenevere.

In the meantime Charlie is just wondering what is going on with daddy while Max's head continually falls and bonks Charlie.

"What are we going to do about this mom?"

But Max wasn't the only sleeper.

Little Evan

More sleepers.

I saved Charlie so Max tried to sleep more with Miles, Miles was even more wiggly than Charlie.

And this is probably my favorite photo from the whole day, He was completely in heaven riding on the bus and going to all his cousins' houses to play with their toys and eat treats.

Then Charlie and Everett got their turns driving the bus. I know Charlie had been talking about this moment for a long time.

We finally got to Jay and Natalie's house and were greeted with delicious Burritos and Wassail.

We made sure to get our family photo with the bus.

Next we went to my mom's house in Tigard.

Charlie liked sitting next to Uncle Dan and helping (distracting) him with his homework.

We had some pull-up competitions. It turns out that Miles likes to hang.

Sort of...

This little football star showed everyone up!

Max was trying to be humble and only do a couple...he really is good at Pull ups...ah..I swoon!

I tried and still can't do a full pull up but I was stronger than I thought and did some sort of pulling up.

We did the bells at my mom's house. 

Then back to the bus to go a couple blocks to my red Grandma's house for a pizza dinner and pinata.

The pinata is always a highlight!

It took awhile with all the little kids that we have in the family now,

It was kind of a madhouse in here. The young kids didn't really get the idea of staying back when someone was swinging the bat.

We were glad we had Donovan though, he busted it open for us.

I think it also might be a tradition to make hats out of the pinata parts.

At some point all the drivers went back to the bus barn with my mom to clean the bus and get our cars to bring back to my grandma's house. 

And that was it, the end of a very busy and fun day. We will miss having the bus but it will be fun to see how this tradition evolves in the future.