Christmas at my Dad's house
Today we picked up Mark who had been at his dad's over the weekend. Then we headed up to my Dad's house for Christmas. My dad and Vickie are headed to Montana for the rest of the month, so we all decided to celebrate a little early.
For Christmas Lunch/Dinner we did make your own pizzas. Which was a really great idea and it worked well. The kids enjoy it, especially Mark who has found a lot of new toppings that he loves but we don't normally order. Hawaiian is his favorite, which we wouldn't have known if he didn't make his own the other day.
After we ate we decorated cutout cookies. We had a little contest based on the best cookie design. With age brackets for the kids, 0-2,3-11,12-16, and then the adults. So the kids all got prizes. Emma won best cookie design, which makes sense, she is very artsy.
After that, we opened presents. The kids both got basketball hoops for their rooms, lights for their bikes, and tickets to go to a Jazz game and a Grizzly's game later in the month. They were super excited about that.
The kids gave my dad and Vickie the paintings that they did, and they really loved those. I got a bunch of awesome stuff for the big boat trip, which really meant a lot to me.
The kid's game Evelyn Warren's old ride in battery-powered jeep. He isn't quite fitting in it anymore, and he prefers his bike. We thought it was a great way for him to pass it down to her. She had tried it out at Halloween and loved climbing in and out of it. She figured out the pedal and can drive forward and back, but turning it a bit tricky.
We hung out for a while and the kids played. Evelyn always hangs all over Warren, and it's adorable to watch. Mark makes sure she stays safe and plays really well with her.
This morning was weird. Nikki went into the bathroom and looked outside and it was bright and sunny and she could see the mountains. I went in 10 minutes later, and there was fog so thick you couldn't see the house behind us. It cleared up a bit for a while, but only for about a mile around us. The rest of the valley you couldn't see more than a hundred feet in front of you. Driving down our street it looked like out Christmas lights were out. They were fine, but you had to be within three houses to see them.
