Christmastime....finally

I am disgusted with how behind I am at blogging...it is terribly sad.  But I am not giving up!  

Christmas this year was spent in Grandview...Nate was the fella running the office that week, so we had to push our Utah plans back a week.  And it was a great holiday with our little family of 5.  

Just before the break, we got to go watch Tucker's Kindergarten/1st Grade Christmas program.  He serenaded us with Must Be Santa and Feliz Navidad among a few others ;)  He also could not wait to give me my gift...the classic ornament with a picture of himself.

There is a cute boutique store in Prosser called Sister-to-Sister that threw a charity night...so by donating $10, we got a pic with Santa, a book, some delicious cookies, hot chocolate from Starbucks, and containers full of candy.  We also got to do some caroling around a fire :)

Our friends the Quigleys had us over one night to make candy trains.  This was so much better than the gingerbread house tradition...I can see this becoming a yearly tradition for sure!

We also attended a funeral.  It was for our friend's young son (3.5 years old).  He was born with a disease called Menkes and his lifespan was expected to be short.  I can't say that I've ever been to a funeral service more spiritual (and I've been to a lot being a hospice worker).  Such a sweet little guy with amazing parents.

The Thornocks threw yet another ugly sweater party.  It did not disappoint.  I busted out some of the fine sweaters I acquired while in Ohio.  And yes...Nate is sporting women's clothing. 

Buddy the elf came to hang out again.  Darn elf always makes me crazy with his mischievous ways, but the kids sure like having him around.

Christmas Eve was spent talking about the Nativity, making cookies for Santa, playing games as a family, eating homemade pizza, bacon wrapped chestnuts, and munching down on sausage dip and Christmas cookies.

And of course getting some new jammies :)

It would appear that Santa made it to Washington!

Coop's first Christmas!

With his first ornament given to him by a sweet ward member.

When the boys came out of their room, I think Tuck was disappointed.  He thought all his gifts would be under the tree, and when he looked there and saw nothing, he needing a little nudge from his dad to look at the fireplace.

Meet the newest member of our family, Gyffy the Giraffe.

You better believe we got plenty of superhero dress-up stuff and action figures!

Tucker's "big" gift was his Leap Pad Ultra, which he was the most excited about.

The fellas also has a surprise waiting for them in the toy room from Grandma and Grandpa Watkins...this sweet cars table!

Here's how Coop spent much of Christmas day...

Christmas night was spent eating some dinner with our friends the Kartchners, who are also family-less out here in good old Washington.  We ate some good food and played games while the boys showed off their new goods.

The next Friday we were off for Utah.  We spent the week shopping, sledding, went on an anniversary date to the Jazz game, ate yummy food, had baby boy's blessing, seeing friends and family, and enjoying the mountain views.

Jenna always has some creative way of making us find our presents, or interesting wrapping paper, or something like that.  This year I had to put a puzzle together to find where she his my gift.

On our way home from Utah, we stopped and visited the Palmers who now live right along our route back to Washington!  We are thrilled they are there and that we can see them more often.  We sure have missed our Ohio friends!

It's crazy to look back at when we first arrived in Ohio....4 of these kiddos didn't even exist yet and now they seem huge!!!