Christmas

What a week. The whole fam caught a nasty bug and had to deal with the consequences on different days. That plus tons of snow has meant staying at home indoors the entire week. Now that everyone seems to be on the mend, it feels like a good time to update.

My brother and Erica set their wedding date for December 30th down in San Diego and shortly after that decision was made I decided since we're going down we might as well make it a real family vacation. Seth started saving up days off and we began saving money and making plans. Brooklyn was the perfect age I thought for her first trip to Disneyland. She loves all of the princess movies and getting dressed up and all that so Disneyland was definitely on the agenda. After a lot of back and forth we eventually decided to leave Christmas day and drive down to spend the week before the wedding in California.

Oh did you catch that? I said drive. With the babies. For 20 hours. After looking up ticket prices we decided to drive. It was either fly down and only be able to attend the sealing and turn right back around, or drive and be able to afford lots of fun stuff. I was super nervous about how the kids would handle being in the car but I have to say they did FANTASTIC for the circumstances. Way better than I anticipated. Ok let me back up a little.

Because we were leaving on the 25th, among other reasons, we had decided the trip would be our Christmas present to ourselves (all selves, including the kids). I got caught up more in "vacation" planning than Christmas celebrating. I did however want to make sure we had a tree and keep things semi festive around the house. On B's birthday I had grand plans to go out in the mountains with everyone (my family came up for the weekend) and cut down a tree and then go sledding. I can't remember all of the events that transpired to scrap those plans but a lot of people ended up staying home and we drove and drove and didn't really find any snow. But we did find a tree! And since Seth couldn't come I got to choose a Charlie Brown tree, my favorite kind :)

Ignore how close the road is to the tree.

The whole crew, minus cousin Ethan who is taking the picture.

After we got home I put the lights on the tree but everyone was too tired to decorate with the awesome ornaments I got for 75% off last year at Target. Never did get around to putting them on. One of my New Year's resolutions is to be better about holiday decorating :)

Christmas Eve we went to Walla Walla and did a small gift exchange with Seth's parents and Seth's siblings that could make it that year. The only picture I got of that was the little cousins (Ezra, Joshua, and B) showing off their sweet ornaments from Great Grandma and Grandpa (Gertch and Fred).

They send everyone (kids, kid's spouses, grandkids, grandkid's spouses, great grandkids etc) an ornament each year and put a lot of thought in to each and every one. This year Brooklyn got a ballerina, Seth got one with tools on it(because he's always fixing things, I got a chef one(since I love to cook), and Taylor got a John Deere tractor. They have so much family yet somehow manage to really get to know you personally. It is such a treat to open the ornaments each year and I love the collection we already have. Such a fun tradition.

Speaking of traditions, there are a couple that I want to incorporate, starting next year. I found this idea on a friend's blog. Instead of going overboard with presents, everyone gets 4 that follow this criteria:

1. Something they want

2. Something they need

3. Something to wear

4 Something to read

#4 makes me especially giddy since I love to read. What a fun way to start building their own little library of books. I think I might also do this one for birthdays. Also Seth's brother Ryan and his wife Amber decided this year to open presents on Christmas Eve to help keep the focus on Christ on Christmas Day. I thought that was a wonderful idea and want to try that too. Maybe just do stockings Christmas morning or something.

Christmas Day Brooklyn got to open some surprise presents that Grammy couldn't resist getting for her and then we went to church. Got to see a lot of old friends and I had so much fun catching up with them. The plan was to leave IMMEDIATELY afterwards but I think we got on the road like 3 hours behind schedule. Now it was on to Portland to have a Christmas dinner with our good family friends the Butterfields. They had one delicious spread waiting for us and then we played a fun and hilarious game of Minute to Win It. Needless to say we were back on the road a lot later than expected! But I'm glad we took our time making good memories and spending quality time together with friends. The next plan was to stay a few hours of the night in southern oregon with Seth's cousins, the Chambers. After the kids fell asleep we changed plans and decided to drive through the night while they were out. It was a long night for the grown ups but I think the right call. We finally arrived at our friend's, the Broadheads, sometime mid morning and crashed. Seth and I were lucky enough to go out on a double date that night while the rest of the fam stayed home with the kids.

Start of the trip!

Still happy to be in the car!

Tomorrow, Disneyland!