We started off on Sunday, the 18th, in Pawnee City for Mike's mom's family christmas. We eat and do a white elephant gift exchange. Except that I hate getting junk..so we bring gifts that we want and then hope that no one steals them from us! It worked this year..we were able to go home with the french press and coffee carafe that we brought. We were pumped :)
Jenna, Mike's sister, also flew in that Sunday so that began our week long extravaganza of eating and playing nertz non-stop at his parents house! It's so fun when she's in town. Jenna and Mike went back and forth being the nertz winner while their mom and I took turns being the loser. We did force Mike and Jenna to add a couple cards to their piles to make it a little more fair for us slow pokes. Such a fun game.
We did Mike's family Christmas on Wednesday 21st and had some amazing prime rib, cheesy potatoes and asperagus. yum. We were spoiled with presents this year again..we are so thankful for their generosity. I got my Kindle Fire that I can't stay off of. I got the perfume I wanted, Philosophy eternal grace, a scentsy, and some other neat odds and ends. We also went to our annual Christmas movie. This year we choose "the girl with the dragon tatoo". Not quite the "feel good" christmas movie, but still a good movie.
Jenna got James his own bball and bag because Daddy and Grandpa Russ have bball bags and he loves to get the ball out of their bags. He loved having his own.
This is how he finished each evening..clothes off.
Saturday morning we our family christmas. Mike and I got each other a couple gifts. We went easy with James this year since we knew he'd be getting so much from everyone else and he doesn't quite understand yet. It was fun to watch him open gifts though. It's funny how a couple months changed his interest in the gifts though. At his first birthday he couldn't care less about the presents..I ended up opening them all. At every christmas though he was there with me pulling off the paper and saying, "OOHHH. OHHH" It was so cute. Saturday evening we went to Christmas eve service with Linda and Jenna at Berean. It was amazing. The singing was beautiful. Brian Olsen from the band, VOTA, sang his version of Noel and it was awesome.
Sunday, Christmas day, was a busy one. We had my family Christmas at my parents house and then my dad's family Christmas that night. We of course were blessed with tons of presents again. And had a wonderful time hanging out with everyone. Too much food of course. Baby enjoyed the overeating :)
Family picture at my parents house
All the kids
The Whole Family
Opening presents at my parents house
Wednesday, the 28th, we had my mom's parents christmas. We share a random act of kindness we did this year and then do a gift card exchange. I got my annual Target gift card..love it. Then we have a pitch tournament and have prizes at the end. So we had a great time of course again.
Today my aunt and uncle from CO left so the official 12 days of christmas is now over. Tomorrow is the NE football game though so it's not quite back to normal yet. And then Tuesday we have our ultrasound to check on baby and find out if we will be having a girl or boy. I'm so excited. We are waiting til Tuesday to actually find out though. Ali will be coming down that day and we'll have family over that night and open up a present that will be filled with pink or blue helium balloons. I can't wait to see if Eli or Violet will be joining us in April.
Here are a couple random pictures that took place during the 12 days!
James loves to "play pool" at great grandma's house. He will say "ball" to every person in the room 20 times until someone gives in and takes him to roll the balls.
Eating an apple at Panera. Usually I cut it into slices, but grandma wanted him to try it this way. He wasn't too sure at first. He gave grandma a "what?!" face when she said take a bite.
Frosting cookies at Ali's sister in laws house. James was willing to frost it if he also got a bite :)
He loves his sweets!
Last night was probably one of the first times we just stayed in on New Years Eve. We were at my parents house with my aunt and uncle. We watched the Dick Clark show and the x-sports jumps. Pretty chill, but we had a good time. We had such a great 2011 and were so blessed. We are looking forward to 2012 to see what God has planned for our family!
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