Christmas in Ohio

The weekend before Christmas we went up to Ohio and got to visit with everyone.  Our first afternoon there, Ron planned to take the Shultz ladies to a paint your own pottery studio for our Christmas gift.  Peggy and Kaitlin weren't able to make it, so Darren filled in for Peggy, and made something for her, and Ron made something for Kaitlin.  It was really fun and gave us a nice chance to visit while we did our painting.

That evening Marleen had us all over for dinner and visiting and then we went up the hill to see Donny and Peggy who are both laid up.  It was a relief to see them doing as well as they are with their injuries!  And it was nice to catch up with everyone all evening.  When we got back to Ron's both kids were asleep, but they woke up for long enough to open gifts with him, without too much convincing!

The next day we went to see the renovations Darren and Erika had done to Grandma's old house.  They did such a great job, the house looks amazing.  It was really neat to see the difference especially since we knew the house so well!  From there we went to Brick House to watch the Redskins game, and Kaitlin, Darren and Erica joined us for the second half.  That evening we went to Dale and Paula's house for dinner and presents.  Their kitchen looks awesome!  They had all kinds of appetizers and desserts and the kids were in candy heaven.  We had a really nice evening of visiting and gift exchanging!

Christmas Preperations

We have been busy getting ready for Christmas and playing in the snow for the last few weeks!  On the Sunday after Thanksgiving we decorated the house.  Most of our decorations are downstairs in our tv area, but we put our decorations on the main Christmas tree in the living room.  I had great help with decorating the tree... for about ten minutes!  Tyler is very interested in the tree, he goes over every once in a while to gently poke whatever ornament has just caught his eye, or will point our character ones and ones with their pictures on them.

Last Saturday we went for our annual visit with Santa at Lake Anne; it was freezing but sunny!  The boys decorated some ginger bread cookies before it was time to watch for Santa to arrive.

While waiting in line they got a little crazy but they calmed down enough to practice their list.  They were both well prepared this year.

Fuzzy, our elf, showed up the next morning with a letter for the boys, confirming what they had asked santa for and reminding them of all of the ways they can make sure to be on the Nice List!  So far they've found him riding the deer head and swinging from the chandelier, among other places!

I also finished making a Christmas tree for them on Sunday.  The ornaments were definitely a labor of love!  It's all made out of felt, so the boys can decorate it however they want to over and over.  I love how it came out and when Tyler showed it to Becky he told her, "My mommy did that" which made me happy!

We had our first bit of snow on Sunday as well, it was pretty to look at, but was mixed with sleet all day, so it wasn't good for much besides crunching through the top, which was entertainment enough for the boys for a while.

The snow continued Monday and Tuesday enough to give the boys a four day weekend and for us to work mostly from home!  It was nice timing because we went to see Ice Monday evening!  The theme this year was "The Night Before Christmas."  Elena and Al went with us and we had a really nice evening.

And Tuesday they got out in the snow again.  This time it was great packing snow, they threw snowballs at us for a while before we made a tiny little snowman.

The past few weeks Tim and I have about wrapped up our Christmas shopping.  This weekend we'll probably start tackling the gift wrapping!  Christmas will be here before we know it!

Thanksgiving and Friendsgiving

We had a nice Thanksgiving this year.  Timmy's class spent a lot of time learning about Thanksgiving, so I think he understood it a little more this year.  Out of everything that Timmy learned about Pilgrims and Indians, what stuck out for him the most was that the Indians taught the Pilgrims to fertilize their corn with three dead fish.  Timmy's school had a Thanksgiving Luncheon the Thursday before, so Tyler and I joined him at school.  Next year we will split one lunch; between it starting at 10:30(!), only having a half an hour to get them to eat, and my picky eaters, we will definitely be able to share!  Timmy did try a bite of everything though and he seemed to like having company for lunch.

 

Vice Principal, Mr. Moose, and Principal, Mrs. Devers

 On Thanksgiving we got to visit with all of Tim's family.  Unfortunately, Susan wasn't feeling well, so we only went to visit at their house for a little while.  When we got back to our house we helped Elena with the finishing touches for dinner, and the rest of the family got there just in time to eat.  Everything was delicious as usual, and the kids were especially excited to have their cousins over and Uncle Chris home.  After dinner Bryce showed off his newest skill!

 

While the big boys ran around like maniacs and got into everything!

Later on, Uncle Joe and Lindsey arrived.  They played a super hero board game with the boys for a while, and then settled in to the new Mario for the rest of the night with Uncle Chris too.  Timmy was in heaven!

Uncle Billy showed up long enough to give Timmy and Tyler about 10 marshmallows at once!

It was a much more relaxing Thanksgiving then we have been used to!

The next day the boys and I got to hang out at home all day and Tim got home early.  That evening we had college friends over, some of whom we hadn't seen in entirely too long!  I was very excited for the chance to have my boys play with Natalie's kids, I'm looking forward to them being friends too!

 

Once they headed home, we went out with Sami, Ryan, Billy, Ryan Schmid and his girlfriend Marilee.  It was really nice to spend the evening with everyone.  Hopefully we will be able to do it again soon!