Christmas Fun

We had a wonderful Christmas day together opening gifts, eating tasty treats, relaxing and swimming. My favorite gifts were a bird bath, a set of really good make-up brushes, and some jewelry. M's favorite gifts were his hot sauces, bowling pins-used for target practice, Spot-a satellite positioning device so he can go hiking and shooting by himself.

 Girls with their gifts from Santa

L's favorite gifts were her baby build-a-bear and clothes,

remote control car, and her dragons.

K's favorite gifts were her books, art supplies 

and fur real kitty cat.

After all the gift giving, M took the girls to the indoor swimming pool for a couple of hours. They had a lot of fun. One of the water features was a whirl pool that spun them around in circles. There was also a bubble area that had water full of bubbles.

When we were getting ready to head for home, Nathan and the girls decided they should knock down our snowmen we had made. Nathan took the big one and the girls took the little one. It was quite humorous to watch.

Nathan was a little dazed when he came back up. I think the snowman was harder than he thought it would be but he got 'er done.

I think I can safely say this was our best Christmas yet. Surrounded by family, snow, and so many fun things to do made it the ideal Christmas vacation. I would love to do it again sometime and maybe that time I will get to go on a sleigh ride.

Our Christmas Eve Extravaganza

The girls awoke to find Relfie hanging out with the singing fish in the kitchen. Guess he likes to hear the fish sing as much as my girls do.

We had a very busy Christmas Eve that started off with some snow tubing with the girls. It was a lot of fun but very tiring hiking up the hill each time before heading down again. The girls couldn't get enough of it.

After tubing Karen joined our family for lunch with Santa and Mrs. Clause where we got to have pictures taken with them. We also saw Frosty, Rudolph, and the Gingerbread Man while we were there.

In the afternoon we all headed to Santa's Workshop to make some glass and porcelain items to be fired and mailed to us later this week. It was a lot of fun and the girls really enjoyed it. I think we will have to do this again sometime at the pottery place near our home. I will post pictures of the finished products when we receive them.

The girls chose horses to paint.

I picked a wreath ornament to paint and write on to add to 

my collection of ornaments from places I visit.

Nathan painted a Marine camo vase.

Karen and Helena chose trivets made with broken pieces of glass.

Sean and Mika painted gnomes.

When we got home we scavenged the fridge for leftovers and then enjoyed hearing the Nativity story from Luke read to us by Uncle Mark.

After the story it was time for our Christmas Eve presents to be opened. It is tradition to receive Christmas pajamas to be worn to bed so they can have pictures taken the next morning in nice clean jammies while opening gifts. We had a lot of fun taking pictures of the kids in their new duds.

Look! Nathan DOES smile! Here's proof!

After jammies it was time to set out treats for our expected visitors. The girls put out cookies and milk for Santa along with carrots, an apple and water for the reindeer. K even put out a special plate of goodies for Rudolph and the note she wrote to Santa.

We were just getting ready to put the girls to bed when we heard a knock at the door. And who do you suppose it was? An elf from Santa Clause. She came to read the girls a story or two and put them to bed. The girls were excited to see her and dog-piled her once she sat down. They each got to pick out a story for her to read to them and then she gave them a little treat. A cute goodie bag with some candy treats to help them have sweet dreams. Then she took them up to their beds and tucked them in, reminding them to stay in their rooms and go to sleep quickly so Santa could come bring them a special gift.

It was a long and exhausting day but so much fun for everyone. I am so glad we were able to come up here and spend a wonderful Christmas together. It truly was a magical time and I am a little sad to have it end tomorrow. I definitely recommend bringing your family to Sunriver for Christmas if you can.

Gingerbread Junction

We awoke to falling snow and found our elf Relphie hiding above one of the doors. The girls were so excited to see that he followed us to Sunriver.

We watched movies and played games until lunch and then headed over to the lodge to look at the gingerbread display. It wasn't as big as I thought it would be but was fun to look at. Here are some of our favorite houses.

Love the use of candy canes on this house.

Habitat for Humanity did a great job.

The girls loved the Princess display.

A 5 and 10 year old created this Manger scene.

Jack Skelington in The Nightmare Before Christmas

K loved this castle with the dragon and moat.

Mrs. Clause in her kitchen.

After looking at the houses, we headed home to put on our snow clothes and headed to the tubing hill. Unfortunately, when we got there they were closing for the day so we headed back home to create some snow fun of our own. We had a terrific time making snowmen, building forts, and making a sled run.

I am always amazed at my hubby's warmth in the winter time.

Mark making the mid-section of our snowman.

 It took two guys to lift the middle onto the snowman.

Sean with the head.

My dwarf snowman.

The Gangsta Snowman and family.

They gave mine a face too.

The girls fort.

M's sled run.

K getting ready to go down the slide on her sled.

We had a lot of fun playing in the snow. Tomorrow we plan on trying the tubing slope again. Hopefully it will be open. Only two more days until Christmas!