Finishing Up

We had lots more fun activities while we had everyone here. 

We played pickle ball at the park again which is now a family fave. 

We had a delicious smoked dinner one night. 

 We hiked the Valley of Fire together.

We played games and did puzzles a plenty. We had a Mexican Fiesta one night complete with a taco pinata. 

I even got to babysit Kallie one afternoon while everyone went four wheeling.

We kept nice and busy until it was time for everyone to start leaving. Ashley and her family didn't have far to go lol. Christina came down here and there. Jeff & Rachel had to leave on the 30th and Hayden & Megan went back up to St George before Hayden had to fly home to go to school. Megan stayed a week longer to visit with her family. What a fantastic Christmas it was. The only downside was the food poisoning that ran through the family. Literally. I even got sick one night. In fact we were planning on going to Spencer's farewell but I didn't want to drag our germs down to California. But maybe that's just more memories to add to our story. It was a wonderful holiday season to wrap up 2017!

Christmas Day

Santa must have been quiet because no one woke up too early at least at our house.

First order of business besides put the casseroles in the oven was find the pickle on tree.

 Then it was present time.

We spent the afternoon eating and chillin until it was time to go to Ashley's house for dinner. They serve soups and yummy stuff like cheese and crackers and dried fruits. Divine.

Christina and Logan left and then we played some games while we were there. It was just a fun relaxing night.

...More Christmas...

Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday this year so everyone had combined Sacrament meetings. Ashley was singing in her ward so we all decided to go to hers. We got a nice group picture after the meeting.

That evening everyone came to our house to celebrate some more. We started with a candy cane hunt for the kids in the front yard. It was so fun to watch them running around searching.

Christina & Logan arrived then and got to see them for a minute.

After our hunt we made Christmas bags for stockings. I had the bright idea of using stickers and puff paints to decorate them. The paint got everywhere.  OOPS

While the bags were drying out we played some games. I had a saran wrap game for the little kids and one for the adults. The grandkids had a fantastic time and it was so fun to watch them all getting into it.

There was saran wrap and candy flying everywhere! 

As fun as that was it paled in comparison to watching the adults trying to tear into their box. Once they saw there were gift cards involved it really heated up!

A new favorite game is born!

It was the best time ever.

 After we finished playing we filled the stocking bags and had the grandkids open theirs since their Christmas pjs were in there.

They looked pretty cute all decked out in their new pajamas. Then it was off to bed for Ashley's family while I made the Christmas breakfast casseroles for the next morning. Time to call it a night and wait for Santa.

...And Continues...

Saturday we had a family progressive dinner. 

We had an ugly sweater theme but not everyone had one. It was still fun. It was a bit stressful planning it at first but it came together nicely. I'm super glad we were able to pull it off.

We started at Beth and Rob's with soup. It was fantastic of course.

We had a good time visiting with everyone. After we filled up, lol, we headed to our house for the main course.

We headed to Ashley's house for desserts and games. 

We played the cup stacking game and had a blast.

It was so fun to get everyone together. Charlie came by and got Alisha a plate since she had just recently had surgery. We also missed Christina and Logan who didn't make it down.