We had the Archibald's over for a thanksgiving-like meal since we didn't get together for actual Thanksgiving. We got to use all the fancy table setting things I bought for our Betteridge Thanksgiving that we didn't end up using because of covid. We also had a special adult evening visiting Grandma Woodward and singing carols with her at her rest home.
We went ice skating with the Jared and Ashley's family. We thought the little boys would love it. We rented a pair of ice skates for Max. He was so unhappy with how unsteady he felt that he refused to put weight on his feet. We forgot to bring the extra seat to the stroller so we didn't have any place for him to be pushed. Max's limp body was pretty heavy to try and skate with! We ended up pulling Theo around on his strap-on skates (from our Canada years) and letting Max sit in the stroller.
All Freddy wants for Christmas is his two front teeth! We started out the Christmas Eve festivities with sugar cookie decorating with the Archibald's. We hosted clam chowder and challah bread dinner too. Then we walked over to the church for the Christmas Eve music night and read the Nativity out of the scriptures. We took matching Christmas jammy pictures as our own little family and sent the kids downstairs to fall asleep. While Chris and I prepared for Santa.
Christmas morning was joyful. We looked at what Santa brought us and then had a yummy and beautiful breakfast before opening the presents under the tree. Max and Theo had a surprise visitor come to look at all the cool things they got. Our amazing neighbor, Keith Teuscher, called to see if he could come take a look. He is one of Max and Theo's favorite people ever. They loved showing him their new kitchen set, and car ramp.
Alec turned 15! We started the day with breakfast in bed. Most of his birthday presents we gave during the summer for his 1/2 birthday. But he's very excited to get his permit pretty soon! We had the Betteridge family over to celebrate Alec's birthday with us. Theo was happy to help with the whipped cream.
As part of our Archibald Christmas fun we all got tickets to ride the Heber train...the Polar Express. We trudged through the cold and snow to board the train and loved riding through the countryside. We were served hot chocolate and cookies and even had a visit from Santa!
We've had so much fun in the snow this winter and it was super fun to go up to the Ridge to check things out. We borrowed snow shoes and hiked up from the lower road (parking in a neighbor's driveway). For New Years Eve we gathered with the Archibald's at Thom and Brittany's house. We had fun sledding down the big hill at the end of their street. Alec took some good videos on his phone, doing slow motion going off jumps. Sometimes we'd catch powder just right to spray our faces pretty bad. We returned to Thom and Brittany's house to warm up, watch movies and eat potstickers! We stayed late enough to ring in the new year (and Jackson's birthday) with Martinelli's and fireworks.
