For the first time in a few years we celebrated Christmas with just us. We had a great time, but certainly missed having other family and friends around. We had four Christmas Eve services to keep us busy (though didn't go for midnight), so it was nice to have a bit of a relaxing day in a messy house after Christmas Day service. The girls made out on gifts spectacularly as usual, including a Trip to Disneyworld (in September)from Grandma Becky and Baba, and a new electric piano from Grandma Carol and Pop Pop. The girls got each other gifts from the thrift shop, and had a lot of fun buying for each other and really found perfect presents for everyone. Agnes did a good job of helping us open our presents and also cried and didn't want to open some of hers so that was fun.
I don't think--I already can't remember--we even ate a proper Christmas Dinner, but snacked all day and called it good.
I managed to get the flu a couple days later that kept me in bed for three days. Then after church on New Year's Eve, we drove down to the homestead* for a nice party and then Evangeline's party the next day.
Kyle and I drove back alone--on purpose--as the girls stayed down at the Homestead for a few days. We hear they got to go swimming at the pool twice in that time, and both Irene and Evangeline jumped off the diving board after passing the pool-length swim test and Agnes got her uncle Eli to take her down the waterslide many times. Also Evangeline lost a tooth.(Boy do kids have a lot of teeth!)
Back at home, I got the place ready for our two Epiphany parties (Kyle went to an installation in Juneau for a few days during this time. I'll have to get him to post some Juneau pictures), one for church and one for the pastors and their families. We had both parties on the same day, one after church and one in the evening so it was basically party time from 12 noon to 12 midnight with a three hour reset in between. Kyle did beef, moose, and caribou skewers for the dinner party which I was very impressed by. It was so fun and tiring and I hope we do it again next year. This was our third year doing these parties so maybe next year we will really have the hang of it.
*The Homestead trip almost didn't happen because of weather. Kyle had bought all of the fireworks for the party, and we were meant to bring them down there. But there was a storm and all reports said travel was "difficult to impossible" and to bring survival gear if you should decide to risk it. After hours of checking the weather, talking to people who had driven through it, checking the weather again etc, we decided it seemed that the storm had passed. It had. There was a little snow but it was definitely not a difficult drive. We were glad we did it. We surprised my parents and were the heroes (not really) of the New Year's Eve party.
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| Cutest dresses sent from Grandma Becky |
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| Still Smiling |
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| Agnes drained the caviar supply at the homestead |
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| She really is 8! |
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| I didn't get a good picture of the gaggle of girl cousins this year, but they were there to celebrate. |
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| 8 |
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| On our drive home we had to pull over and have a picture-taking contest |
