Snow

A few shots of the kiddos playing in the snow a few weeks ago in the backyard...

Max actually seemed to like it, for the first time.

and a little video...

Family Ugly Christmas Sweater Party

We hosted the annual family Christmas party a week ago. I decided to do an ugly sweater party, including tacky decor, games, and gifts.

The cake:

The party goers:

The winner!! What did he win? A fruitcake, of course!

Max found the dip.

We played a few games.

Including the post it note game. The first team to get their post-it notes stuck to their team leader, wins.

The paper snowball fight got a little out of hand. Serious cheaters.

Decorating the gingerbread house relay.

The boys won:

My little bro's family:

My big bro's family:

My mom, my brothers & I. My sister lives in Texas, so she always misses out.

We did our family photo as our Christmas card (see previous post).

After the games, the person with the most points from winning, picked the first wrapped present. Then the second person, etc. Little did they know, I got all the gifts from the local thrift store. There were some doosies...

Christmas Morning

Santa came!

Max was really into unwrapping for the first time...

Steve is thrilled with his new socks!

This was a super cute present from Piper:

 It reads, "Dear Mom, this is not the gift you guessed. This gift is peace, love, and happiness, and a happy Christmas."

Max's Christmas jammies were a bit big ;)

It was a great day! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve we get together with Steve's brothers for dinner. This year, Piper really wanted to act out the Christmas story. We only had one other willing participant, so here they are, Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus! And a photobomb by Homer... oops.

We did dinner pretty early and got everyone off to bed. I got the presents layed out and was in bed myself by 9:30pm - unheard of! And, no anxiety attack this year - yay!

Merry Christmas!

Piper's School Christmas Program

Soccer

Piper decided she wanted to play indoor soccer this fall. She and her friend, Mim, signed up together so they could be on the same team. They had a great time. And went undefeated!

I volunteered Steve to be their coach. Actually I bribed Piper one night and told her if she'd hurry up and do her homework, I would coach her team. Then I decided Steve could do it instead. It worked.

She managed to score a goal in her first game!

The kids all rotated in and out of playing goalie.

Max hated being strapped in and sitting on the sidelines when everyone else was running and kicking balls ;) Sorry little dude. He got back at us by continually throwing toys onto the playing field.