Christmas 2017

Our Christmas break was lovely this year.  We did our fun traditions...

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS with PJs and cocoa

GINGERBREAD CONTEST.

This year we did one with friends and one with family.  For the one with friends, B went with a tall skyscraper and he even used a new technique for making "stained glass."  He bit the heads off of gummy bears and left the square body and it had a "stained glass" effect.  Clever!

Elina is definitely following in B's footsteps by having one of the cleanest plates at the end of the contest.  I don't know how they do it!

Evie cleverly made a tree out of pretzel sticks and marshmallows. 
Eli had a sturdy treehouse.

As usual, Eulee probably consumed more candy than she actually used.  Ha!

 For the family contest, B meticulously made a train.
 
Elina had a multi-plate scene...one that resembled a nativity scene and one with a road. 
Eli had some nice cars in his scene. 
Evie made a creative Star Wars battle scene. 
Eulee meshed all 3 of her siblings' ideas and came up with her own scene complete with a small nativity scene (Elina), a car (Eli), and black gel (Evie). 
I actually came up with a red and white little house of my own this year.  I just wanted to use as many candy canes as I could and it actually came out really well!

Of course, the best part is always the awards.  Who doesn't like getting high-fives from everyone??

CHRISTMAS EVE CANDLELIGHT SERVICE.  This year Elina played keyboard again, but Evie decided she wanted to join the children's choir too.  We were all singing "O, What a Glorious Night" for weeks before this.  Such a great song!

 

CHRISTMAS PJs.  I finally caved and just got the kids short-sleeve Christmas PJs.  The cutest Christmas PJs are long-sleeved ones from Hanna Andersson (ahem, very pricey), but every year the kids wear them a handful of times for the 5 days it's chilly here.  I give up!  Thank you, Target, for saving me tons of money on Christmas jammies!

Our CHRISTMAS DAY was a day of unwrapping.  We don't let them tear through everything, so it was an all-day process that was really relaxed and enjoyable.  I love spreading the love out all day.  Ha!

Elina made a lot of presents with her newfound love for crocheting amigurumi.  One word: adorbs! We each got something and we all loved them!  I got a hedgehog, B got a baby Groot, Eli got a fishing lure, Evie got a guinea pig, and Eulee got Songbird Serenade from the My Little Pony movie.  Elina really needs to open her own Etsy shop!

These are cute little animals she made for all her friends, too.  She wanted to keep them all!

We opted not to get the kids Christmas presents this year.  Instead, we offered them an experience.  Since last year's ski trip to Utah, the kids have been wanting to go skiing again.  So we broke down how much a ski trip costs, and asked them if they'd be ok with that being their Christmas presents.  Elina was down with it, but Eli needed some convincing.  So the 4 kids had a mini-conference and came to the conclusion that they would rather put the Christmas money towards a ski trip.  Yay!  (Post on our ski trip later!)

We are so thankful for another wonderful Christmas with family and friends!  That is always the best gift of all!