Christmas Festivities 2010

We had a great Christmas this year. We were so looking forward to spending time with our families and we definitely got lots of time with the family! We had a blast. Here are some pics and videos:

1. I think this was actually from the previous weekend, but it was so cute I threw it in here.

2. Can you believe this baby is just under three months old?! Chubs for sure. We don't call him "Hank the Tank" for nothin'!

3. Kate got into a doughnut and then proceeded to give Grandma chocolate kisses. She thought she was pretty funny.

4-5. We went over to my dad's house for a couple of hours during the day. We opened presents and hung out for a bit before Brandt and I had to head over to Grandma Hines' house for dinner with his family. We got there just in time for dinner and apparently we barely missed out on all the excitement - two grease fires, a few broken ornaments, a broken vase, etc. But by the time we got there, everything was back under control and dinner was great.

6. That night we had a bunch of my family over for pizza and games. Nada and Jill brought over a really neat video of the nativity - this is just a pic of us watching the video. I really liked it - it's crazy how the song fits so perfectly with the video. It's so easy to get caught up in the excitement of the holidays, so I thought it was nice that they shared this video on Christmas Eve to bring back into perspective why we celebrate this time of year in the first place. I found the video on YouTube so I posted it below for those that are interested. Thanks for sharing girls!

Now that we've watched a spiritual video on the true meaning of Christmas, lets move on to the commercial side of the holiday shall we? I had to post this picture of my mom's tree. Isn't it BEAUTIFUL?!! Every year she has such a gorgeous tree and this year was no different. Even with hurting her knee a few week ago and being a hop-along for the last several weeks, she still somehow managed to decorate her tree. Brandt and I were a bit "Bah-humbug" this year and didn't even put up a tree in our apartment, so it was fun coming home and seeing all the fun decorations. Good job mom!

 7. Hanging out Christmas morning waiting to open presents. Kate could hardly contain her excitement (watch the video below.)

8. Henry slept through most of the excitement. Until he had a good blowout and then he was wide awake :)

9. Fran made these super-cute aprons for my mom, Kate, and Bryan.

10. I think Lindsay's favorite present was her new, green, double-insulated, bigger-than-her-old-one, water bottle. Good job Craig!

11. Linds and I had the same gift idea for mom - lots of pictures :)

12. Brandt's main gift from me was a new fly-fishing vest. He's had his old one since he was in elementary school, so I figured it was time that he upgraded to a big-boy vest. Craig had his name in the sibling gift exchange and he got him a hydration pack which fits perfectly in one of the pockets on his vest. Again, good job Craig :) My main gift from Brandt was....UGG BOOTS! Yes, I love them.

13-14. Lindsay had Zac's name in the sibling gift exchange - she got him this awesome shirt from J-Crew. She figured it was pretty cool, ya' know, being from J-Crew and all. Somehow, she missed the Twilight reference. She thought it was referring to a car wash. The funny thing is she got the same shirt for Craig awhile back and he's been wearing it without realizing what it meant. We got a good laugh from it. It's ok Linds, we all have those "chicken filet" moments every now and then.

15. The two sexies on Christmas Morning. 

16. The two sexies later that day. We clean up nice eh?

17-18. A bunch of us hanging out before dinner.

19. Mom in her new apron, Kate, and Lora working on dinner.

20. Yes, she is eating dough from Lora's dinner rolls. Awesome.

21. And finally...the crash. She ALMOST made it through dinner, but alas, she gave in. (watch the video below)

Ok, here are three of  the most hilarious videos you will ever see. I may be exaggerating, but maybe not. They are pretty funny.

"Kate on Christmas Morning...Too Much Candy!"

 Eight Hours later, I shot the next two videos:

"The Crash Part 1"

"The Crash Part II"

HILARIOUS right? Gotta love that "Cake on Fire" :) So after the festivities of the weekend, Brandt and I headed home Sunday night so that I could work on Monday. Usually our office takes the whole week between Christmas and New Years off, but this year they decided to work one day, which was a bit annoying for me, but kind of nice at the same time money-wise. So I worked on Monday and then that night we drove right back to Burley for some more fun!

22. Rex and Sammy playing X-box. I thought it was so cute how Rex had his head up on Sam's shoulder so he could watch the TV with him.

23. Brandt with the kiddos.

24. LOVE this girl. 

25-26. So if you haven't figured it out by now, we are big gamers in our family. This year we tried out a few new games. These pics are of us playing Mad Gab Card Game, which was pretty fun. We also tried out Monopoly Card Game, which was also a lot of fun as long as Sammy didn't play (gave the rest of us a fighting chance at winning), Bananagrams (thanks to Craig, I will forever know the meaning of the word "quelp", and Rook (we weren't big fans of Rook, but in his defense, I don't think we gave him a fighting chance). 

27. And of course we played the ol' standby Dominoes. Here's Brandt making fun of us because he hates playing Dominoes.

28. This shirt makes Henry's eyes sooo blue. Love it.

29. Puppy and Baby Henry.

30. This is the outfit I bought for Henry. Isn't he just the cutest thing you ever did see? He's also the best baby I've ever met. He's so good to just let you hold and cuddle him. The only time he cries is when he's hungry or tired, and even then it's not for very long. And he rarely spits up (this made Brandt a fan of Baby Henry right away). I love this kid and miss him like crazy.

So that was our Christmas festivities. Congrats to you if you made it through the entire post; I didn't mean for it to be that long, but I had more pics than I thought. It was so good to see everyone and I can't wait to do it again! Now we're off to spend New Year's with the Hines'. The good times just keep on comin'!!