Happy ThanksChristmasYear

It's a new holiday! You can also call it the EndlessFamilyGettogether!
Let's count.

My side:
Three gatherings for Thanksgiving.
Two for Christmas
None for New Years.
TOTAL = 5

Marshall's side:
None for Thanksgiving
Three for Christmas, 4 if you count cookie baking.
One for New Years.
TOTAL = 5

GRAND TOTAL = 10 + all the other random get-togethers in between = Lots of time to ourselves in January!

For Thanksgiving week, we celebrated the November Birthdays including my Dad's and also had a Wild Game feast with all the things the boys have "harvested" this past year.

For our pre-Christmas activities:
First big snow fall - Dec 4th A Christmas Carol for the 4th year in a row.
St. Nick filled our stockings.The kids did great at their Christmas Concerts. Both with speaking parts. (Bragging Rights!) We really noticed how, compared to most of the other kids in 3rd grade and up, Trent spoke so clearly and with good volume.

We baked cookies and went sledding at Grandma's.
New this year: Marshall borrowed my Uncle's smoker and we brought smoked salmon, pheasant, oysters and scallops to all of our gatherings.
Thinking about A Christmas Carol and remembering how my family and parents friends used to hop on a hay wagon and go carolling, Marshall decided we should do it ourselves this year. We hosted a neighborhood Christmas Caroling party. It was great fun. You should have seen the smiles on the faces of the people we sang for! If you're in the area, you gotta come next year. Everyone really enjoyed it.
Other than the frequency of family commitments, Christmas was relatively free of chaos. The kids were so excited for their gifts! I noticed Santa hid the best ones toward the back of the pile. Those little stinkers dug them out first! Of course - at Grandma's request after opening the robes she made out of these super soft comforters she found. Callie's was a "real" guitar. Trent's - Rogue Shadow lego ship. Callie already has the rock star attitude even if she can only play the first 6 notes of the Iron Maiden song Marshall's cousin Polly who was visiting from Australia taught her. (Some day we will go there to visit her!) As I write she is strumming and singing.
We spent New Years Eve at Marshall's parents for game night. Everyone brought at least 4 games along! We only got to one from each family. Marshall and I were the champions of Luke & Amy's game, Pass the Popcorn. It's a movie trivia game. A given for Marshall, but I was surprised at the number of questions I was able to answer. Time went by fast, I didn't feel a bit tired when I realized it was 11pm! I couldn't believe it, I was actually gonna make it this year! HAPPY NEW YEAR 2011! It's been great having Winter Break. Today is a pajama day, and later, skating on the lake. We went from 50 degrees to less than 20 in one night. The rain melted all the snow and the lake was smooth as glass. I've been working a little over this break but the kids love to hang out with the Grandma's so it's a nice blend. Tonight, hockey and my bowling league. New tennis racket and bowling shoes for me this Christmas.

Marshall got us an after Christmas present: NetFlix. I know how we'll be spending our no family boycott!