Christmas Wrap Up Part 2

Two things I want to mention (yes, I am almost to Christmas, I promise).  First, I married into an amzing family.  How did I get so lucky? Well, obviously I have a great sense of judgement, and totally picked Ernie for his family :) In all seriousness, they really are great people, all 5o something of them, and I am grateful for all of their examples to me.

Second, I love traditions.  It is so much fun for Ernie and I to be able to have our own little traditions with our kids.  Even the little things like the type of stuff Santa brings them in their stocking.  And I love that my kids get to be a part of both of our families traditions.  We have been able to switch off every year, and we've never skipped a beat. Wow, I have mentioned this before, but they are VERY lucky kids!

Well, this year held fast to tradition.  We had such a great time.  Ernie's sister came from Utah Christmas Eve morning, and the kids were really excited to see Jackson and Andrew.  They loved being able to spend time with them.  (the other day Caleb was playing with legos and said, "I sure wish Jackson were here to help me put the wheels on these legos.")

And then it was off to Grandma Doreen's for seafood for the grown ups upstairs and pizza for the kids (plus me :) downstairs, the Christmas pagent, Grandpa's story time,  and then gifts from Grandma Doreen and Grandpa Bill. And let me tell you,  it was an unbelievable year. Grandma and Grandpa spoiled us all.  We all got more than we would have ever dreamed of. 

WOW, this is going to be a LONG post!

So obviously Christmas Eve was unbelievable, but there is still Christmas day.

Santa did not forget us, even all the way in Idaho! And he ate his cookies, and the reindeer must have loved the carrots.

I didn't get any pictures (but I did get them on video....), but Amanda's boys were really fun to watch when they saw their gifts. And you can tell from the tree that there were more than just Angie, Ernie and Karli there this year! It was a memorable morning. I'm glad we could all be there together.

We went over to Grandma's for a delicious dinner and stopped by Holly's to see their kids gifts that night.

When I mentioned it was an unbelievable Christmas, I mean it. I feel very very blessed and grateful.

I'm so glad I have so many pictures, but also that I took a lot of video.  It will be fun to always have those memories to look back at.

I love Christmas! Can't wait until next year, and don't worry, I already have my wrapping paper (90% off at Target, woo hoo!)

Christmas Wrap Up Part 1

As you can imagine,  I have an abundance of pictures from our 11 days in idaho.  I decided to do this in two segments.  So here is part one, our week leading up to Christmas. I realized though as I was looking at these that I was not very good at getting pictures of everything I would have liked to have some of. For instance, one of the kids favorite things was getting to see their cousins. My favorite memory (other than the running hugs I got from them, yes, it's nice to feel missed :) is watching them play football in the backyard of my sister in law's house.  Yes, snow and all.  Jake, who is really into football, had a play book that he had made.  It looked very legit, and the younger boys obviously thought it was because they would all huddle up and look at the book, and then run plays per Jake's instructions.  Priceless!
(the sad part, my camera was even with me, I just never used it!)

Here are the boys all dressed up for church. The camera was left in the car, and the lense was frozen! But you can kind of see their adorableness.......

We were lucky enough to see some friends for about an hour one morning. 

(Ernie likes to be around them because he also has a few moments of feeling loved)

As you can imagine, the kids were stoked when it snowed even more! Caleb loved jumping off the tramp into the snow, and Ernie enjoyed tormenting his brother with snow balls :)

The day before Christmas Eve, we came across this special Santa mail box while we were at the mall with Grandpa Ernie (yes, there are 3 Ernie's!) The kids thought it would be nice to send a letter and make sure he, the reindeer, and Mrs. Clause were all well.

As you can tell, it was a very busy week. 

December Happenings

As I was downloading pictures of Christmas, I realized I had much to catch up on.  I decided to give you a belated, but brief run down of our December. 

Lake Havasu had a great Christmas boat parade.  The pictures do not do it justice, it was beautiful! It was also definitely a first.  We sat on the beach and watched.  Micah was here as well, lucky girl :) The kids weren't too excited about pictures, so none of them are great, but memories nonetheless.

Ernie was the Santa in his school play.  A role of which he was very proud.

And last but not least, here are our attempted Christmas card pictures.  They started with this back drop...

However after a battle to get Ernie into the picture as well, and then a broken stocking holder as well as fireplace tile, we ended up with a few like this.....

And finally, on the last picture taken, ended up with this.....

(Notice there are no longer stockings behind them :)

And that was our December.  And that is really how fast it flew by. 

When The Fog Sets In

The presents were wrapped, and mailed to Ernie's parents home.  The luggage was packed. (Even with the remaining straggeling gifts) All last minute Christmas errands run. The house was actually totally clean, even clean sheets! The boys were thrilled that they were FINALLY going to get to fly somewhere.  (Caleb really dosen't believe us that he has flown before because he can't remember it.)
However, as if to say 'this is what you get for being organized and prepared for once', fog set in in Boise.  Yes, all plans drastically came to a hault, may I add here AFTER we had already drove the 2 1/2 hrs to Vegas for our flight, when the airline called and told us the flight was cancelled. (-Yes, we were refunded the tickets!-) Panic set in.  How were we going to get to Boise?  I was sure that Christmas was going to be ruined and we were never going to get there. And I had everything scheduled and oraganized, and completely prepared! That's what I get for scheduling, and don't worry folks, I learned my lesson. :) 

Well, what do ya know we made it here, and with great roads. The drive wasn't even too bad.  (Although, I think that if I ever hear the Chimpunk Christmas CD again, I might loose it.) We have had blast seeing family and good friends.  And it snowed today, so the kids were thrilled!!
Some of my absolute favorite memories are from being at my Grandma's house for Christmas. (Yes, the one who makes the best breakfast if you remember from my previous post)  I am so excited for my boys to get to make those kind of memories.  It is a lot of work to pack up Christmas, but I am so thrilled we get to do it. And one more day until Christmas Eve!  I absolutely LOVE this time of year!!

We Wish You a Merry Christmas

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The Crafty Elliotts

While Ernie was having fun in NY for buisness (he did get to go to Madison Square Garden to see a Knicks game while he was there) last week, the kids and I got crafty.
This type of thing is not a regular occurance as it created a mess greater than that of playdough, so it was defanitely picture worthy.

Caleb helped a ton. Well, that is his take on it.  But I'm pretty sure Ernie did most of the work while Caleb ate the candy. And he has asked every day since if he can eat the whole house now.

Thanksgiving Feast

Every year my family has the same Thanksgiving traditions.  We have all grown to love our traditions.
We start off the day way earlier than should be humanly possible to run the "Catch the Gobbler" 5k. It is so much fun and the kids had a blast with it this year! Layne and I did the 1 mile with them. Although, I'm pretty sure Ernie can handle the 5k next time! He did awesome.  He ran the entire way and came in first! Like first place, the real deal! Caleb also ran nearly the entire thing, and I was trailing behind him as he sprinted to the finish line in fourth place.  (He would have been third, but an older lady speed walked right passed him in the home stretch. Have a heart lady!)  Anyway, everyone thought it was so cute and would cheer caleb on as he ran, he then would run a little faster.

Nat, Mark and Ernie after they finished

Claire and Ernie

Yeah dad! He took first in his age group! We were quite impressed. I can't remember his time now, but it was like 25 min or something. 

Layne was Ernie's mile run budy

Claire (she won't be able to do the piggy back pose for a ton longer since he will probably pass her up soon)

Caleb laid down in exhaustion after he was done.......

Which only lasted a few minutes and then he was racing Ernie

The proud 5k crowd (We missed you mom)

And I mention lastly that we were the proud winners of 4 turkeys this year!!!

Well, that about covers the first few hours of the day.  As for the rest of the traditions of the day.... a brief run down:

nap

get ready

eat

go to movie

and finally

home for pie with the Roskelley's

 Our movie this year was Fantastic Mr. Fox. And let's just say it wasn't my favorite Thanksgiving movie of all time. (But we know Layne and Micah, you liked it :)  My favorite was actually when we saw How the Grinch Stole Christmas.  We spoke in Dr. Suess inspired rhyme the rest of the evening.

We had a great Thanksgiving.

And yes, it is defanitely time now for Christmas. Even if I wore a skirt and flip flops today.