Before I get to Christmas Eve there is a little more to catch up on - like our anniversary. Between recovering from all the birthdays and the Nativity Exhibit our 15th wedding anniversary kind of got lost in the shuffle. :( We did end up celebrating a little the weekend after when Aunt Wendy and Uncle Bruce (AKA: the bravest people I know) invited all the kids from all the Hopewell families over for an evening of gingerbread house making and Christmas fun. There were our 3, Bruce's 5, John's 2 and all of Bruce and Wendy's kids and grandkids as well. I'm not totally sure how everyone survived! But I do appreciate all of their hard work. The kids had so much fun and Josh and I (and the baby) got to go out to eat and do a little shopping for our anniversary. It was nice! Thank you Bruce and Wendy for one of the best presents ever! I can't believe I didn't get any pictures of the finished gingerbread houses the kids made. They were each unique and I could tell just by looking at them which house belonged to which child.
Ryley also had a cub scout Christmas party at which they made gingerbread houses. This was his finished house:
You can actually see a couple of the houses they made at the Tyler's in the background there.
This Christmas was really great. We had lots of family visiting and lots of different activities. Maddie and I took one afternoon and busted out some plates of treats to take to friends.
Josh and the kids delivered most of them (I can't remember now why I couldn't go. . .) but I did deliver a few of them too.
After Caitlin and Dave and their kids and GG and YoPapa arrived in Texas we pretty much lived over at Granny's house. We did lots of fun things with them and miss them all!
We decided that since Christmas was on Sunday this year we would celebrate our usual Christmas morning at Granny and Pops' house on Saturday instead. The whole gang was there. This kid was particularly fun to have around. Such a crack up!
Maddie (and the rest of us) loved meeting Quinn. Maddie in particular though loved hanging out with her and watching her for Aunt Caitlin. She is a cutie patootie!
The Hafens were all there (including the newest one set to arrive in July 2012 which we didn't find out about until it was time to go home.)
And the part of Jesus was played by Taylor. . . hahahaha
GG and Yo Papa were there - a very special treat! She'll probably disown me for putting this picture on the blog. Sorry, GG!
The kids had fun opening their presents.
The big "kids" had fun opening theirs as well. Josh got me one of the most thoughtful and special presents ever - he turned this blog into a book. Well, two books actually! I cried like a baby when I opened them up. I was NOT expecting those!! I usually send him a wish list or two from Amazon so my presents are not very surprising. But he went out and thought of this one all on his own. I've been wanting to do that for some time now I just never get the time to sit down and put it all together. He did a great job and I love them!!! He's definitely a keeper.
After presents we had the traditional waffle breakfast - a.k.a. the real reason we all come over on Christmas. :) I didn't get any pictures of it though. I never do - too busy eating!
We just hung out and had a great time together for a while after that. I love having family here!
Later on that night we went over to the Hopewell's for some more family time. All the Hopewell kids and their families usually gather together at their parents' house on Christmas Eve.
Grandpa always has a few (or several) stories to tell.
Sawyer was tired of sitting still so I took him into the other room for a while. He found his favorite thing. . .
and was wondering why it was wearing a hat?
After dinner, opening presents, and lots of Grandpa Stories we all headed out to go home and wait for Santa. Our sad little Christmas tree (it's pre-lit and some of the lights went out last year; I tried to fix it but the new lights weren't as bright as the original ones so that's why it looks weird and striped) was stuffed with presents and the stockings were hung and cookies and milk were left for Santa.
Here's a shot after Santa had visited:
This post is already really long so I think I'll turn Christmas Day into one of it's own. The suspense is killing you, I'm sure!
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