Christmas 2009 retold

What a great Christmas! I hope everyone had a great holiday, spending it with the ones they love. Ours here in Central Oregon was great.

My mom flew in from Georgia (pretty sure we hadn’t seen each  other since she moved summer 2008), so it was nice to have her around. She was here just over a week and we managed to squeeze quite a few things in.

[Peterson Rock Garden]

 

Steph had a great idea to do Gingerbread houses. Instead of gingerbread, we decided to use graham crackers and homemade frosting. It turned out pretty well! Fun times…

 

[watch the roofline, he was having problems with this gingerbread/graham cracker house]

[his house was turned into an airplane]

 

[jaden and steph’s turned out pretty nice]

[cam had fun]

[not bad, mom!]

The Gilstraps, our mom and los Claytons all stayed the night at our house for Christmas Eve so we could spend Christmas morning together. I thought it was awesome and hope we started a tradition!

[Jaden left cookies and milk on Christmas Eve for Santa]

[it wasn’t a white Christmas with snow and all that, but there were some really frosty trees and bushes outside]

[i just think this is so cool!]

 

[before Santa came, Cameron had to use this sweet hoop made from a paper sack]

[after: Cam has this sweet hoop. he loves it! No more paper bag or human hoop with our arms. All the adults who come here are now saved from hours of holding our arms out! Thank you Santa aka Grammie!!!]

[Jaden got skis and I found Keith this sweet  breath checker. It’s supposed to detect chemicals in your breath that make it bad. Good breath = smiley face, bad breath = frownie face. Worth a try! :)]

[my big present from keith was a spa day – AWESOME! – but to throw me off he wrapped a big box with chili and soup inside. I thought the card/certificate looked really nice but I was trying to figure out what the canned food had to do with anything. Totally Keith’s style, don’t you think?]

[my other big present was a ski day. he put one of my sister’s ski boots in a box without any explanation. I pulled it out and was totally dumbfounded. classic!]

[post-presents hot cocoa!]

[Christmas dinner. I found some Christmas crackers – we were introduced to these last year – they are so fun! Love wearing crowns for dinner!]

   

[sweet crowns, yo!]

[Found this cars playhut for Cam. He likes playing in it with Jaden but I’ve also realized he likes to hide in here and use it as his personal outhouse. Since we are potty training still I know whenever he’s quietly hiding in there it’s time to run to the bathroom!!! Yikes!]

[sledding!]

 

Mom left yesterday, but Keith has been wanting Cam to help him shovel the driveway for a few days. Today was the day!

 

[yup, Keith is in his shorts and slippers! How very Oregon of you, Keith! :)]