Happenings during break

Christmas break has been strange. We had warm weather for Christmas Day but then a cold spell that brought freezing rain and left us inside because there was not a lot of snow and just ice everywhere. We put on our new Montana shirts from Grandpa Stubblefield.

 Delaney and Laurie with their Montana shirts

Tristan got a tiger onesie at a mall sale

 Delaney and Asher played with a new toy called Bunch'UMs.

 Everyone loved their new gaming system. Laurie even snuck down after everyone went to bed to play a bit.

 Mara tried out her new face masks that came in her stocking.

Nigel has played with his snap circuits over and over. He loves them!

 Tristan did allergy testing at the doctors. He is allergic to all grasses, a lot of trees and most weeds. And....the cats.

Mom went down to the basement to get some canned foods and such for a family in our branch that needed some food right before church. A can flew down and cut her eyebrow open and caused blood to pool in her eyes. It hurt and made us late for church. Daddy had to come home from the ER to glue the wound.

Winnie's 2nd birthday!

 Winnie turned 2 Christmas Day. After the chaos of the morning, she took a nap and Mommy cleaned up and put birthday decorations up. We chose a cookie cake with a snowman face this year and she loved opening her presents. She kept saying "Santa comes on my birthday!"

 She got a carseat for Christmas but after nap she insisted on sitting in it until I took it from her to put in the car.

 Another chair! She was sad about the car seat sign to the car but so excited to see her birthday present- a purple chair with her name on it! She also got a second puzzle from her brothers and sisters!

 She got new boots from Grandpa and Grandma Stubblefield and lots of clothes (below) from Grandma Angie and some from Grandpa Vincent too!

Christmas Day

Christmas was wonderful! The kids actually slept in and Josh didn't get called in until we finished with presents. Everyone was happy and excited and afterward Mom made our traditional breakfast of egg nog french toast and Christmas sausage medley and egg casserole.

Josh: an immersion blender, framed his Stubblefield family name, new socks, Scrubs movie series and "fight club" books. 

Mom: earrings, necklaces, a book series, and as part of my 40th birthday as well, tickets to see Eric Church, a hotel stay, and my sister is flying out in March for a long girls' weekend!

Tristan: a ploy box, new bedding, gift card and shoes, a book about movie directing, plus some souvenirs from our trip that nom made-an ornament and a scrapbook

Melina: her class ring, new bedding (duvet), Kohls gift card and sweatshirt, a dance mystery and trip souvenirs too, face mask stuff

Mara: horse!!!! (horse picture too), a new coat, a harry potter robe, harry potter book, plus trip souvenirs and face mask stuff 

Asher: a scooter, new pants and watch, tiger apparel, a mystery book, a mouthguard game

Delaney: american girl doll jammies, light box for drawing, slippers, american girl book, earrings

Laurie: bunchums kit, snow pants, amercian girl doll jammies, mercian girl doll book, earrings

Nigel: snap circuits, mini soccer kit, socks and sweatshirt, a graphic novel, a travel game

Gideon: Legos, pop guns, sweatpants and socks, Click Clack book, a Paw Patrol car

Winnifred: mini trampoline, car seat, shoes, puzzles and her own baby phone that accesses the internet!

Grandma: puzzle 3D, elephant bracelet, candy, compression socks, souvenir book from our trip

Christmas Eve

 Christmas Eve has to be one of my favorite days of the year. Josh had the option to work Christmas Eve or Christmas day and I told him to take Christmas Day so that we could enjoy all of our Christmas Eve activities together. We spent the day watching Christmas movies including one of my favorites, A Christmas Carol with George C Scott. Josh and I also ran to the store to get Chinese food for dinner. We always eat Chinese for dinner to celebrate the Wisemen from the East. (And also because I don't want to cook two or three big meals in two days). Anyway this year we went to HyVee to get some gluten free stuff we had to cook because one of our missionaries is a celiac, plus Josh is on a restricted diet right now and cannot have gluten either.

 Anyway we had Chinese and then we started our Gingerbread house decorating. This year I forgot to get the remade houses at Costco but thankfully Walmart had some the week of Christmas. We divided into four teams: Mara with the littles, Mel and Khaelia with the girls, the sisters and Tristan and Asher. We bought a bunch more candy at Walmart too because the kits never provide enough.

Winnie just enjoyed eating the candies. 

We took pictures of the finished creations.

Asher and Tristan's had a broken roof so they made the best of it with a deadpool sign. 

 The sisters had the most intricate designs.

 Mara made a fence with wafers and filled it with crystallized sugar for snow.

We also opened our siblings gifts and our jammies from the Stubblefield cousins. 

Tristan got a new Panic at the Disco shirt, Mel MJ shirt, Mara got a "survived the snap" shirt, and Asher got a fortnite shirt, Laney got a black flower jacket, Laurie got some jewelry, Nigel got a Did You Know? book, Gideon got coloring books and Winnie got a lot of stickers.

The missionaries opened their gifts from us: hand and feet warmers, lined tights, warm socks and an insulated water bottle. 

Finally before bed, Laney and Laurie put on a Christmas play for us. I talked with the kids about giving Mom and Dad gifts and the girls came up with this play for us. Giddy and Nigel brought home gifts they made at school for us and Mara offered up some free babysitting. 

We got the kids to bed by 9 after watching the Nativity movie from the Church and having family prayer. Santa showed up a few hours later.....

Sanat left all the gifts under the kid tree. This year it was a real tree thanks to our wonderful neighbors Tim and Anita Reihmann.

he also left a note but he gingerbread houses stating that Mom and Dad left a gift in the basement (a gaming table!) and out in the garage (a ballet bar/weight room)