Christmas Eve / Christmas Day

I know these posts are bit overdue, but at least I am doing them, right? We had a great Christmas, even though we weren't with any of our family. Christmas Eve Ian and Ava opened their P.J.s as is our Christmas tradition. We then headed over to our good friends the Beeghly's house for some yummy pizza and fun with the Wii. It was very nice and relaxing.

We played some Dance Revolution, (is that what it is called Tana?) Meredith, who just turned 10 and I played, then Colby, Dustin, and Ian played next. Ian also like watching Colby play "Cars" and he tried his hand at bowling.

Geez, I didn't realize I didn't get any photos of Tana and Shawn, sorry about that guys.
Tana made some reindeer food for Ian and Ava to put out for Santa's Reindeer. So when we got home the kids spread it out on the front lawn for them.

Christmas morning was a blast...Dustin's family was able to watch Ian and Ava's Christmas morning via Skype. At least we had a virtual family with us. Of course the Grandparents and Great Grandparents spoiled the kids. We don't even need to get them anything, they get so much from their Grandmas and Grandpas. We are grateful that we have such wonderful families who give so much to our kids, and show so much love to our family.

Santa did bring Ava some undies in her stocking. She wanted to wear them right away. When her diapers run out, we are going to try our hand at potty training...Wish us luck!

For Christmas dinner we were invited over to our friends the Larsen's house. We had some excellent food and even better company. Unfortunately I forgot to take my camera. We are so blessed to have met such wonderful people here. It helps us to not miss our families quite as much. Thank you to all who are so kind and generous to us, not only at Christmas but all year long.

Christmas Tree

Here are a few random photos of our Charlie Brown Christmas Tree that we love so much...

Christmas Tree Hunting

We drove into Oregon to cut down our Christmas Tree this year. We were lucky enough to convince some friends of ours to join us for this adventure. We did not know, however, that there was going to be this much snow!

We also were surprised to drive through a huge fog bank on our way to and from the mountain.

Here we are with our Christmas Tree (to the left of us).

Nathan and Dustin cutting the trees the old fashion way, with a hand saw.

Ava was only happy when she was eating the snow. Ian cried a lot because he couldn't walk in the snow that was past his waist.

Bonnie and Preston hanging out in the snow. By the way thanks Bonnie, for letting us use your camera for most of these photos.

It truly was a Winter Wonderland. I could never see us obtaining a tree any other way. Tree lots are too boring and fake trees are for lazy people. (No offense to those of you who have fake or tree lot trees). This is one tradition I don't think I will ever let go of. There's nothing like finding the perfect, yet not ever perfect, tree growing wild in the forest. Thanks Bonnie and Nathan for the great outing!