Final Christmas Celebration

The Saturday after Christmas the Neal family came down from Portland for lunch and a gift exchange. Every year we draw names with the Stoerman side of the family (my mom's sisters and their kids) and this year we had the gathering of all the Oregonians at our house. I cooked a ham and everyone brought side dishes and appetizers. We all had a really fun time hanging out and playing games. (; Lots of joking around and laughing!

Becca, Uncle Truls, Papa, Aaron, Hannah, and Eleanor
Katrina, Mom, Josh, Aunt Robin, and Kenton

The Big Kids: Ronan, Cohen, Tyler, and Sadie

The Little Guys: Griffin and Finn

Opening Gifts

Rockin' Batman

Uncle Batman

Ruddick Family Christmas

When we got to Josh's parent's house all of the kids were given teddy bears sent from Great Grandma Ruddick. We got a quick group picture before it was time to eat and open gifts.
(Dylan, Griffin, Lydia, Ronan, Audrey, Emma, Macey, and Ethan)
Macey and Griffin eating together

Lydia and Audrey
Griffin snuggling up to Grandpa (:

Dylan opening his gift from us: a tool kit!

Audrey was so excited about her new Harry Potter books!

Griffin trying out Dylan's new tools (:

Dylan and Ronan eating dessert and watching a movie.

New jammies for all the kids made by Great Grandma Ruddick!

The Green Family

Our Family~ Ronan was not happy about being in another picture!

Erin and kiddos~ definitely ready for bed...it was a long day! (:

Hecht Family Christmas

After finishing with our family Christmas at home we headed over to my parent's house to celebrate with my side of the family. This year we drew names with all of the adults in the family, and then everyone gave gifts to each of the kids. It seemed to work out really well. (: All of the kids handled the excitement well, and even let their cousins have turns with their new toys. (: It was a really fun Christmas, and so nice to have the whole family together!

We always open gifts in order of youngest to oldest. This year we started with baby boy Henry! Here's Katrina and Kenton holding up t-shirts from the Chases and us for baby #2!

Griffin (2 yrs old)

Finley (2 yrs old)

Cohen (3 yrs old)~ wearing the Hulk mask we gave him.

Ronan (4 1/2)

Sadie (5 1/2)

Tyler (8 3/4 yrs old)

Josh trying out his new box drum from Papa

Aaron & Mom

We ate brunch together and hung out for a little while, then we headed to Josh's parent's house to spend the rest of the day with his family. Our parents live just a mile or two apart, so instead of going straight there we decided to take a longer drive so the kids could get a little nap. I'm glad we did otherwise our kiddos would not have lasted very long at the next gathering!

Christmas Morning

I was the first to wake up, so I got ready and waited downstairs to get pictures of the kids
when they woke up. It was nice that they slept in a little bit because we had a big day ahead of us!

Ronan was so excited to see that "Santa" had come! He noticed that some presents had gift tags with Santa's picture on it. (:

A cool Front Loader for Griffin!

A Hummer for Ronan

A photo book for Josh from me.

Josh got me a new digital camera--nice & small & much easier to carry around at parks, etc.

A new (2nd hand) train table and train set! We bought it from some friends with three boys who had recently outgrown it. Everything was in great shape and I know we'll get lots of use out of it!

Stockings!

Christmas Eve

For the past several years we have hosted a casual Christmas Eve dinner at our house for my side of the family (whoever can make it). This year it was my parents, the Henry family, and my brother, Erik. We had a nice time eating together and just hanging out. Earlier that day Josh was at Trader Joes and they were giving out free gingerbread house kits, so we decorated it that evening. (: This was the first year (ever) that I had all of my gift wrapping and food preparation done before Christmas Eve. It felt so great to be able to have a calm and relaxing night before Christmas!

It was hard to convince the kids, especially Griffin and Finley, that the treats were supposed to go on the gingerbread house!

New jammies from Memaw and Papa!

Reading to my sleepy, rosy-cheeked boys.