Christmas season this year was filled with all the usual holiday trappings, including fun family events, sugary treats, sparkling lights, and even a few viral infections.
We started off the season by adventuring to the mountains to cut our first tree as a family. DeNae was our guide and hot cocoa provider. I really enjoyed the tree we choose, it fit just perfectly in our home. Dennison also insisted on having his own "tree" which he put in his room and decorated with all his own ornaments.
We also spent a family night decorating the gingerbread house from the kit that Nana and Papa gave us.
What holiday season wouldn't be complete with out silly Christmas songs sung(more like shouted) by preschoolers. Sam's school had a fun little holiday program and party complete with a special visit from Santa and cookies and hot chocolate.
The culminating event of the season, was the Baxter Family gathering. The Baxter side has not been all together for several year, and this year we all descended to the Cameron residence in Fort Collins. There was a crew that drove 20 hours from Kentucky in a mini-van(, including 3 kids in car seats, and Grandpa laid out on the floor with a herniated disc. Another couple of college girls ventured from Idaho and Utah, while the crew from Las Vegas hopped on a plane. All-in-all there were 2 babies, 6 little kids, and 12 adults that cozied up to spend the holidays together (We were only missing Emma on her mission and Jesse, who just started a new job in LA). The picture below about sums it up. We had some great times, but there was also a terrible stomach bug that made the rounds, and then made the rounds again. It took out everyone but 4 adults and one baby. In addition to gastroenteritis, there was also the laryngitis and the flu. Needless to say, there was a lot of people not feeling well at any given time, in this shot, DeNae is feeling pretty terrible but still puts up a good effort to entertain the kids. We did have plenty of good times though that should not be forgotten, so here are some of the highlights.
Simon got to meet Grandpa for the first time and made sure to get lots of love from Grandma and everyone else.
We went out to see some very clever holiday lights at a garden in Ft. Collins. It was freezing cold, but the lights were really cool with a garden theme. There were trellises of grapes, a field of corn, carrots, chili peppers, and a flower garden complete with butterflies. to name a few. It was a refreshing take on holiday lights that was different then the usual reindeer and candy canes.
The kids took full advantage of the opportunity to load up on sugar with some cookie "decorating" (and sampling).
I love how focused my nephew was at putting so much frosting on this cookie before smashing another one on top of it.
On Christmas morning, Grandma was trying to contain all the grand kids before the rushed upstairs to see what Santa left. She did pretty well fending all of them off. (This lady has some experience raising 8 kids of her own)
Some Christmas morning chaos. We also had a gift exchange for the adults where the most coveted gifts were the "bacon wave," and a hand crafted cutting board made by my brother-in-law, Jason.
The "white" part of Christmas was delayed until the afternoon when it dumped a bunch of snow. Deep snow is a novely to those from Las Vegas and KY, we made sure to get out and play.
With this many little kids (most of them boys) cooped up in a small area for long periods of time, there was a constant din of running, yelling, and rough housing. Aunt DeNae and Uncle Brendon's gift of glow sticks, mixed with some loud music DJ'd by Eve, just aligned all the wild crazy movement into a fun light show that kept everyone a laughing (of course until someone started crying).
This may have been a first of its kind when Grandpa actually played video games. Samuel and Dennison had a riot boxing with Opa.
These two cuties are 3 weeks apart and are on complete opposite ends of the grown chart, but they are so cute!
A little snow and frigid temperature didn't stop Opa from building Estes rockets with kids and launching them. I didn't get any pictures of the launch because it was Ada's turn to be sick that day. The boys were very excited.
This adorable guy is Homer (3 months older than Simon). He is like the cute baby version of Sloth from goonies. Squeezing this little one was irresistible.
Audrey and I took the three oldest kids to the discovery science museum to explore one afternoon. They had lots of fun with the tornado wind tunnel, playing with lights and a shadow wall, learning to play instruments, building ball tracks, ordering food in diner slang, and lots of other fun things.
Periodically we would take the kids over the the church gym to let them run around and get some of their crazies out while the sick people back at the house could get some rest. This was the last day when we were having a picnic on the floor.
After all the relatives came, and went, we headed home for the rest of the holiday break to enjoy our new toys and some some time together.
Sam and Dennison playing a new game from Nana and Papa.
They wanted to have a slumber party every night, and we consented. Here they are both on the top bunk and you can see all the stuff pushed off to the sides like books, ipod with headphones, a perplexus game, and who knows what else.
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Another holiday season passes, and this one will sure to be remembered. We may always remember the never ending string of lowlights, like barfing, pooping, fevers, freezing cold trailers, deep snow, dirty dishes, piles of shoes, noisy chaos, fighting, or fender benders, but hopefully we we also relish the laughs, jokes, delicious food and good company.
