Merry Christmas!

 Merry Christmas! We have so much to be thankful for this past year... Chris and I were talking about our highlights of 2012...fun family trips, the health of friends and family, and watching our kiddos grow and become fun little people were at the top of our list. Chris and I both took on new jobs, Ethan started Kindergarten, Owen started gymnastics, and Harper has been a constant source of entertainment through it all! We feel truly blessed.

Our Christmas season was a whirlwind, and here is my best at re-capping...

 We decorated our Christmas tree after spending Thanksgiving in Oklahoma. I'd like to pretend that it was a warm and fuzzy evening spent as a family, but the reality was that the kids broke about 10 ornaments between themselves, fought with each other like crazy, our tree wouldn't light up, and nothing was going as I had planned, so I was cranky. There is a small dose of our reality for you. :) Ah, well...looking back at the pictures it looked like a really sweet memory!

 We celebrated our own family Christmas that morning of the 22nd so that we could have time for our own family traditions. It ended up being really nice for the kids to have time playing with their new things before we packed up for 5 days. I think Harper was most excited about her Chapstick, Owen has barely taken off his fireman costume since he got it, and Ethan was pretty excited about an art set. (I selfishly was excited to see what he did with it!)

The 23rd we headed to the Hoyle's Christmas-Eve-Eve party, and per usual, Kerri did an amazing job. The food was phenomenal and the Dirty Santa game was abnormally tame!

We woke up the morning of the 24th to a yummy Paw Paw breakfast. The kids could hardly eat because their Christmas gifts were in the corner waiting to be opened! Ethan was stoked about his swords (among many other things), Owen couldn't wait to put his wheel barrow together and wear his construction vest, and Harper could have been done with gifts after opening her "feed my baby dinner set". Thanks, Paw Paw for the great gifts and loving on us!

The afternoon of the 24th we headed to OKC to see Grandma and Lynn. Grandma had quite the spread ready for us when we got there. Debbie, that dip you made could be the death of me! Once our kiddos went to bed we played a game called "Brands of the World" (or something like that), and I'm pretty sure I haven't laughed that much in a long time. At one point I was crying...the Hoyles are quite the competitive bunch, but we manage to have a good time in the midst of the trash talking. (The girls won, btw.)

Due to the winter storm that was headed our way, Greg and family left early Christmas morning to avoid getting stuck. We opened gifts right after breakfast, and we were really sad to see the cousins leave. The rest of Christmas day was spent in our pajamas watching Christmas movies and the boy host wrestling matches in Grandma's living room. Harper joined in occasionally and it was quite entertaining. We made some sweet memories. Thanks, Grandma and Lynn, for letting us take over your house and for the fun gifts!

Our last leg of the Christmas marathon was spent at Mimi and Papi's. The St Louis Dodson couldn't make it, sadly, due to illness. So we Skyped them into our living room as much as we could, but it wasn't the same without them around. 

Mimi and Papi helped the kids put on a play of the birth of Jesus, and it was hilarious watching the kiddos dressed up. Jack and Ethan chose to be sheep instead of wise men - I'm not sure if we should be concerned or not... Mimi did a great job on the stocking stuffers, and all the kiddos loved their gifts. I think mostly they enjoyed the time playing together, though. It's fun to see their friendships form. Thanks Mimi and Papi for the great memories!

I think I need a nap after all of that. :)