Christmas Time!

Well...Christmas has come and gone already!  It seems like it went even faster this year than ever before.  Tyson and I were in Mexico for both the Meinders and Pecha Christmases, so we missed out on those.  We also missed out on putting up our Christmas tree right after Thanksgiving (it didn't get put up until December 11!!) 

We did things a little different this year with my parents, Josh, and the Malcolm's.  Wendy and Darren wanted to start some traditions with Ava (like opening Santa presents at home on Christmas morning) so we decided this was the year to start.  My parents and Josh came to Cedar Falls on Christmas eve and we all (including the Malcolm's) went to the service at Prairie Lakes.  Then we headed over to Wendy and Darren's for snacks, drinks, and games.  Ava even got to open some presents before she went to bed!

This gift was a huge hit!

After I finished beating everyone in Farkle and my dad was falling asleep (wait, had already fallen asleep) we decided it was time to head home.

The next morning, Tyson and I got up and exchanged gifts and also opened some gifts from his mom, nana, sister, and some of Tyson's clients.  He definitely hit the jackpot on giftcards! We'll be eating out for months! (They must know I don't cook - I gave up on that)  After opening gifts, it was really hard to get moving and packing to head to my parents' house.  We were supposed to leave by 10:00 and were pulling out of the driveway at 10:15.  (We still beat the Malcolm's!!!) :)  However, Tyson decided to just stay in his pajamas (he said he'd shower at my parents' house later - which never happened:) ).

We checked out our loot from Santa (sadly, my mom said this is the last year Santa is stopping by for us - but he'll definitely still make a stop for grandkids!)  Santa's gifts were followed by breakfast and then the gift exchange between the 7 (plus Ava) of us.  Ava definitely beat us all out on gifts!

We then laid around all afternoon, ate supper, and then the games started!!  I can't even count the number of games of Scattegories we played!  We also added in Mad Gab too, but Darren was starting to go deaf from my dad screaming in his ear, so we had to take a break from that.  Oh, we also tested out my parents' new surround sound.  For some reason the guys all thought that to get the full effect, the volume needed to be as loud as possible! 

Look what my parents got for Tyson!

Even sock monkey needs a bottle

One of the MANY gifts she got!

Ava is helping Uncle Tyson win in Scattegories

The day after Christmas was spent sleeping in, napping, and laying around again.  Tyson and I finally headed home around 3:00pm.  It was a great Christmas and I'm already looking forward to next year!  We're planning to buy a 9ft tree (with new ornaments) hopefully this week sometime.  Next year we're hoping to have a basement to decorate for Christmas as well, which is where our current tree and decorations will go!  We have 10ft ceilings, we need to get some use out of them!!  We also got some great Christmas decorations from my parents that I'm looking forward to using next year as well! :)