Goodbye to 2019

Another amazing year in the books! We continued our memory jar and love reflecting on the year. So thankful.



 

A Cabin For Christmas

We were very excited to celebrate Christmas with a little get-away this year. It was so nice that no one had to clean for anyone's arrival and we all pitched in to plan and prepare the meals we would make while there. Having most of the food prepared ahead of time helped it be an even more relaxing holiday along with all the extra fun readily available.

Our family arrived first. We had the shortest drive and the others hit a few snags before they were on their way. We enjoyed some game time and time in the hot tub. While Brad went to grab pizza the kids and I finished up our read-aloud.

Waiting for pizza isn't so hard when you have ginormous cookies!

Brad played a lot of games with the kiddos but this is the only picture!

Christmas Eve

Fireside chat while we cooked breakfast.

As you will be able to see, A.J. was a champ and played lots of games!

Loved shuffleboard!

So nice having corn hole ready to go on the patio!

Four of us headed out for a horseback ride late-morning.

Horse-lovin' girls.

The view!

Yes, this means we went down the side of a steep plateau and then through the river!
This was a first for us girls and was a fun adventure!
It was deep enough we lifted up our feet to make sure they didn't get wet...but obviously I didn't get a picture of that. ;)

Corner checkers! They also played quite a bit of chess.

It's A Wonderful Life that afternoon in the media room.
I feel like I love this movie more every year!
The kids definitely liked it more this year!
Christmas Day the kids and Brad watched The Santa Claus.

Cabin Church. :)
Mom played most of the traditional Christmas Eve hymns,
Ronnie read the Christmas story and we had our own candlelight sing-along to Silent Night.

After Silent Night we continued a tradition from Mom's family by singing The Twelve Days Of Christmas.

Christmas Day

Up bright and early. :)

Playing new games.

I do not particularly like puzzles but if there is one around I feel like I need to help. :)
Mom has had the tradition of having a Christmas puzzle in the last several years so it was another fun project to work on together.

Apples To Apples!

Decked out in our buffalo check.

Indoor soccer.

Had to have a crackling fire out on the back porch.

Mad Gab!

Time To Go

Had to sneak in a family pic in front of the cabin right after we darted out at our checkout time!

Loved this cabin and so thankful!

Paris, Texas is halfway, so we had to stop and check out their Eiffel Tower!

Family Pictures

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Highlights Week 3

Class Parties
I have enjoyed being a room mom for Lorelei's class and it felt especially fun to plan her party this year. They played a game where they unwrapped a saran wrap ball, had a book gift exchange and then did a selfie scavenger hunt. It was so fun to plan for this age!

Selfie with someone wearing a Santa hat. 

Selfie with a reindeer

I was not at Makin's party but they made a cute snowman!

Ice Skating
After the class parties, we headed to the Galleria for some ice skating around the world's largest indoor Christmas tree! It was much more crowded this year but we still had fun!

Charlie, Makin and Ryker

Jaedynn, Lorelei and Savannah

Lorelei gets pretty nervous about falling. She would want to hold my hand or stay on the side.
Her friends encouraged her to get out in the middle. Made me thankful for her sweet friends and also proud of her for getting out of her comfort zone!

Reindeer Games
We had the biggest turn out yet for this year's Reindeer Games! I was also more behind than I had ever been...I was planning the games out the night before and the morning of, on top of running to the grocery store...but thankfully no one could tell...mostly just a stressed-out Mama! :) Hoping next year I'm more prepared...but this proves it can be lots of fun even if it isn't as stress-free as you would like! Many of the husbands/dads joined us for a low-key pizza supper with Christmas Family Feud guys vs gals and we are loving that addition on to this tradition!

The kiddos pick a number from the tree to determine the order of our games. :)

This year's line up:

Cup Tree

Toy Touchdown

Candy Cane Catch

Nutstacker

Antler Toss

North Pole Pop

These aren't my kids but it made me laugh so hard...the two smallest girls were together (balloon was to be carried back-to-back so they picked sizes similar) and they could not get their balloon to pop...finally a mom yelled...have Emma sit on you! and sure enough, it finally popped!

Jingle Bell Toss

Snowball Fight

(There was also Candy Cane Relay and Cookie Shuffle (that one is every year!) but no good pics of those!