Christmas 2016

This year was our year to spend Christmas in Calgary as we alternate every year.  Each year brings its own set of traditions, some new and some old.  We've been celebrating Christmas Eve at our house for several years now and this photo was taken after the kids got to open one Christmas present, their PJs.

You see, my kids sleep in their underwear and I think every kid needs at least one pair of PJs that fit and the receive that pair on Christmas Eve.  Sadly, they have not remembered that from year to year and they were excited to potentially open the Nintendo DS machines that they had asked for over and over.....  I finally told them it wasn't a toy and they shouldn't get too excited.  The hockey PJS were more of a hit then I expected and they wore them for over 24 hours straight!

I am very bad for remembering to take a family photo during Christmas.  I love that this one is is front of our tree.  Everyone had changed out of their regular clothes except me.  Whatevs, we are all smiling and looking at the camera!

The first year we after Grady was born we all slept at Nana's house.  Grady got up before 6am and I spent the next 3 hours trying to keep him quiet while the others slept.  Now, we sleep at our own house and arrived at Nana's in our PJs at 9am.  There are always presents from my parents under the tree that we let the kids open first thing while Santa brings the presents to Nana's.  Santa is smart and knows we like to open them there....

Obviously a Chicago Blackhawks fan....

This Pittsburgh fan was excited about his DC super friends newest toy. The kid will have the whole set soon!

After what seemed like hours of waiting to the kids, we headed to Nana's where we open stockings first.  This year we tried something new where each adult buys a $30 gift for every other adult so it wasn't so much work for my MIL.  I thought it worked well.

After stocking we have breakfast, always eggs benedict.  I prefer the land of nod cinnamon buns but everyone else goes crazy for eggs benny!

Finally the kids opened their coveted Nintendo DSs.  This was probably the most excited I've seen them get over a present.  Thank you black Friday for the deal so good we bought 2!

This is by far my favorite photo of Christmas.  This kid is so expressive. What a ham!

And another great shop....  I don't think he is excited at all....

After presents, we lost the kids to their new Nintendo DSs for a few hours.  Turned into a pretty quiet afternoon....

.... until we bought out Bean Boozled!

If you have kids (or even if you don't!), you need to play this game.  You flick the spinner and you get a color that will either be a good flavor or a bad flavor.  For example, white could be coconut or spoiled milk or orange could be peach or barf.  Here is cooper spitting out barf into the spit bowl.  

I can tell you from experience that spoiled milk is also spit worthy. Some of them taste bad and others are so disgusting you can't bear to swallow it...

We also went skating on Christmas day and when you go to the neighborhood rink you run into many classmates.  We even ran into Grady's coach and they all got a scrimmage going.  They got Uncle Joel's Linz jersey for Christmas and they were the best dressed out there.... European jerseys and pajama pants!

We went back to Nana's and warmed up on hot chocolate before we devoured our yummy turkey dinner.....

It really was a great day spent with family, games, skating and food.  The kids got what they wanted for Christmas and so did I (running gear!).  We spent time with friends in the mountains before Christmas and family time for Christmas.  We've spent the past week doing things that we never have time to do with our hectic schedule.... watched movies, swam, skated (of course!), had dinner with friends.  All in all this is just what I need to rest up before January hits and my busiest month of the year begins.  Oy, time to start dreaming about spring break!