Christmas 2013

Is it already January?  Well here is our happenings in December with all sorts of holiday fun!!!

We got a Christmas tree over Thanksgiving up at Amanda's parents property.  It turned out to be a great tree!  We were so busy the first week of December with Brian being gone for work and stuff that we finally got around to putting it up the first Friday at Midnight!!!

Lily by the tree before putting the star on

Avery is super excited!

with our bubbly (Mango Martinelli's Apple Cider)

As a tradition, we always have Brian give a toast when we put the star on top of the tree.  We have fancy glasses and Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider to go with it.  Since we were rushed, we put the bottle in the freezer to get it cold faster.  However, in less than 2 hours, it froze!!!  Well it was really slushy and made quite the mess anyway.

O Christmas Tree!

Christmas Eve we had our Christmas Eve dinner and then watched the Nativity movie and opened PJs from mom and dad.  We ended getting to bed late, but that was ok!
Christmas Morning, as always, was magical!  The kids wanted us sleepy parents to get out of bed alot sooner than we parents did.   They were also good not to peek into the room as they came upstairs.

One of our gifts we got was the new-to-us sectional couch that we are sitting on.  We were able to get it earlier in the month and we love it!

Mason LOVED the wrapping paper.  He couldn't get enough of it.  If there was a present anywhere near him, he would try to unwrap it or eat it.

Avery got what he had asked for.  "Cars2 and a slide"  Santa couldn't put the whole swingset together that came with the slide, so he just put the slide downstairs for them to play with until spring.  The kids were sure excited for that.  

Mason was super tired and so he went back to bed quite soon after opening presents.  That is why he isn't in this picture.

Lily wearing her new pjs and a skirt she received from Santa and slippers from Great Grandma Downs.

We just lounged around the house for the day enjoying lots of movies which we got for Christmas, playing with the toys and taking some naps.  

This is the Downs Family Picture that we took at Thanksgiving

A few days before Christmas, we were went to Idaho to stay with Brian's family.  Brian's brother Mark was up from Florida for a few days and so we wanted to spend some time with them.  The Saturday before Christmas we went to a fun Live Outdoor Nativity put on by the community for free.  It was so much fun, even if it was cold.  We got to ride a wagon pulled by horses to different scenes in the Nativity.  Then there was hot chocolate at the end!

 Grandma & Grandpa Turpin were doing the 12 days of Christmas while we were there.  One of the days they got princess gowns for Grandma's dress-up box.  Lily pretty much lived in the Rapunzel one the whole time were were there!  If she had to take it off, she took the other 2 dresses and laid them out all nice and flat on the floor.  We were not allowed to touch them then.  It was quite cute.  Then once more cousins came they found some graduation hats to dress up in as well.  We made them some "diplomas" for completing the "Princess Academy."

There was some fun sledding at the Junior High School.

Avery & Boyce

The Crazy Youngest Turpin Brothers

All piled on for a big train!

playing with another 12 days of Christmas gift from Grandma

 One of the days we were going to go sledding again, but instead had a snowball fight and did some snowman making just at the house.  It was quite awesome!  The big snowman took all the guys lifting the head over their head to get it on.

Then they decided to make a sweet snow fort/igloo.  That was quite the adventure (it wasn't planned out so a little sketchy at first, but they still managed to get it done).  Unfortunately, by that evening when we left, it had started to rain and the snowman fell down :-(