Christmas Weekend

This year our Christensen family gathered together at Christmas. Not all of my siblings could make it on the same day so our Christmas fun was extended to more then just one day. Some of were able to get together Christmas Eve at my parents. That night my brother Jonathan returned home. On Christmas day we invited all the local family to our house in the early afternoon. The guys went shooting while the women got ready to eat. Not wanting to serve turkey for 3 days straight we did a homemade Cafe Rio lunch for the 15 of us. 

 Kylie and Grandpa playing.

After lunch we sat around visiting and playing. That night we watched the new TNMT movie. 

The following day my brother Travis and his family came for the weekend. Aunt Christina helped with horse rides. 

Madelyn and cousin AnnieLou 

 Kylie wasn't too sure about riding the horse but in the end she didn't want to get off. Emily was great sister helping her hold on. 

GG came for the day. 

Elena was a great help giving her treats and a drink. 

By the end of the day we were all tired. 

These two were lucky enough to do something about it. 

I love the holiday's and how our families always gather together. Both sides of our families are growing so big that it's not often we get to see everyone over a few day's. 

Christmas Morning 2015

Merry Christmas!

We told the kids that they had to stay in bed until 7:30 secretly hoping it would be after 6 am. They started calling down to us at 6:30. It's been earlier in years past so it wasn't too bad. Although the 11 year old no longer believes I think he was the most excited. He is the one who went around and woke everyone else up. 

Christmas morning fun! 

A tiara, 

pokemon cards, 

ninja turtles,  

a new bike 

and charcoal pencils, pastel chalks and a new drawing pad for the artist of the family. 

Ponies 

The joys of the aftermath! 

This beautiful young lady is growing up. She is always my hardest with coming up with something that she wants. She really wanted a new desk. I told her that Santa can't bring large items like that so it would have to come from mom and dad.  She asked for clothes and lotions that have matching body scrub and body spray. What happened to my little girl? The baby dolls and barbies?

She was excited that mom and dad came through with her desk and matching chair. 

 Hunter loves lego's! He really wanted  Despicable Me bedding. He was also excited to discover a pellet gun among his gifts.

All Emily wanted was the FurReal PomPom (panda). She is quite the little mommy. She feeds it, takes it for walks and sleeps with it every night. 

Gosh I LOVE this age. 

Brayden was so excited for his TMNT guys and lego's. 

Miss Kylie wanted a bike! She's pretty happy with her baby stroller, play doh and characters from her all time favorite movie, 101 Dalmatians. 

This year we did several family gifts. The new gun was daddy's favorite. 

Playing our new games. 

Hunter was quick to take his old bedspread off and put on the new. 

I have a love/hate relationship with Christmas morning. I think I'm more excited sometimes then the kids are for them to open their gifts. I'm excited to see the kids try to guess whats hidden under the paper. I love hearing them speculate what that gift could possibly be that makes a thudding noise when it's shaken. I love hearing them say how much they really hope that gift might be. I love the looks on their face when they discover what the gift actually is.  Come summer time of every year I start making a list of ideas that I think my kids would enjoy for Christmas. I start looking and scouring for good deals. I make it priority to look at the clearance section's every time I go to a department store. I refuse to pay regular price on toys and clothes during the year and Christmas gifts are of no exception. Sometimes if I'm really lucky I may buy a future gift right after Christmas for the next year. It seems like it takes me months to prepare for Christmas morning. And then the day is finally here. And in less then an hour all those months of looking and searching and hiding and wrapping come to an abrupt end. It's over!   

We did have a good morning, we played together, we laughed together, we made memories together. 

Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve has finally arrived!

I love tradition's and my kids and I both love this one.

Even though the the bigger kids know whats inside there is still excitement in the air. 

New pajama's!

Some year's my kids have matching pajama's and some times they don't. This year thinking it's my last time I can probably get away with it I tried really hard to do matching pajama's. 

Emily was thrilled with her pajamas that match big sister, Madelyn.

Brayden was excited to have pajamas that match big brother Hunter. 

Hunter was thrilled with his Christmas zombie pajama's that he didn't care they matched. 

Kylie fell asleep before leaving Grandma's house earlier. It was my opinion to let the 2 year old sleep through the festivities but I was out numbered. It took everyone's help to wake her up. Despite my effort I could not find the same pajama in a size 10/12 and a 2T. So this year Kylie had a one of a kind without matching anyone.

 When everyone had changed into their new pajama's we played our Christmas Eve games. Madelyn loves the stick game.

Madelyn and Hunter

Emily and Brayden

Madelyn and Brayden 

Brayden and Hunter 

Emily's favorite thing to do is our pyramid.

Kylie in typical 2 year old fashion who's been woken up too early did not want to cooperate. 

Daddy tried to help! 

But.....it didn't matter she just wasn't going to do it! 

So the kids tried other things. 

Fun... 

and more fun. 

And in the end she had a smile on her face. 

However, all she wanted was to sit next to daddy and watch! 

Christmas Eve at Grandma's

Christmas seemed to last for several days this year. On Christmas Eve my brother Jonathan and his family were able to come for a visit. Grandma had the girls make these cute place settings for our Christmas Eve dinner.

They turned out super cute and the girls enjoyed making them.

While the girls were creating the boys sat in front of the computer playing games with each other.

We had twenty people present this day. We were missing my brother Travis and his family. They would come up the day after Christmas.  Come dinner time the five youngest ate their dinner in the adjacent room. We heard lots and lots of giggles and laughter from this table of 5 year olds and younger.

Mya, Kylie, Brionney, Brayden, Jamie 

The adults sat at the table with the big girls. They boys sat at Grandma's island. 

Following dinner we made our way to the front room and some of us exchanged our gifts. This year my siblings and I exchanged gifts by using the word SANTA. We each gave gifts using those letters. 

Jonathan and his family received things like starbursts, air heads, twizzlers and I don't remember the other's. It was something fun and a little different to do this year. 

Christmas Baking Fun

Some of my greatest memories of my childhood at Christmas time are of all the treats we made. I can still see the counter full of plates with all sorts of goodies. Some that we made and others that were brought to us. I loved having all the choices. It has somehow become tradition in our house that when school finally gets out we start our baking and treat making. Hunter's favorite treats to make are dipped pretzel sticks. He made the carmel, dipped them and then dipped in melted chocolate. Some he left plain and others he sprinkled with red and green sugar crystals. They turned out great!

Emily and Brayden love to make our pretzel bites. Small pretzels with a rolo and 

a m&m or pecan on top. 

Kylie loves to help crack our pecan's. We used lots of pecans in our sticky chex mix treat this year. 

While I made some yummy cinnamon rolls Brayden and Emily made some teddy bear's, a doll and duck shaped rolls for lunch.

Kylie likes helping roll out the dough

Madelyn made her Santa shaped bread again this year. 

 I must have been busy helping everyone this week. I didn't get a single picture of any of our finished goodies. I love the memories that were created.We made lots, we had lots and we enjoyed them all lots.