Christmas, New Year's Eve and all in Between!

IMG_7666, a photo by tracyg00 on Flickr.

We spent Christmas Eve at Jenny's house. It was a really nice evening. We were able to get the whole group looking at the camera AND smiling!

The kids always have a great time playing together. The Tomichs joined us and our kids happen to love theirs. Here are all of them in the movie theater.



They went on a hunt for the pickle (which is a real stress-inducer for most of them).



Megan found it, much to Jake's dismay.



Here's the hostess whipping up her famous green beans.



And the guys, before dinner.



We had some pretty excited kids once we got to the presents. Megan got the American Girl wagon from Mimi and Papa. Definitely a highlight!



And Jake received the Lego Palpatine's Arrest set. Although, it should not have been a surprise since he assigned that gift to Papa in early December. It was still a great moment!



This story goes back a few years. We had gone down to Scott's for his birthday a few years ago. I stopped at the grocery store to pick him up a cake on the way. While we were in the store, Megan saw some Cheese Whiz and decided that she wanted to get him that for his birthday. He made her feel good about it when he opened it and remembering that, she wanted to get it for him again. I guess you can't go wrong with cheese in a can, right?



And, here's a token photo of me with Jake.



On Christmas morning, the kids woke up to see that Santa had been good to them.



More Legos for Jake!



And I liked this fashion photo of Megan!



She also rec'd the American Girl bathtub set (which you can see in the background). That was probably her highlight.

While the kids were on break, Megan made chocolate chip cookies for us. They were delicious!



We had a nice, snowy day at the end of December, so I took the kids out for a hike in the woods. The loved it.



Here is Megan acting like a sloth.



I was able to get them together for a nice photo.



And Jake got Megan to stand next to this small tree and started shaking it to make it snow. It kind of caught her by surprise, they had a blast out there.



We went to the cottage for NYE with Jenny and the Tomich family. On New Year's Eve, we went to the Grand Geneva resort for sledding. The snow was packed down and just perfect for sledding. Here is Megan getting launched.



And a little bit of a different style of launching for Jake.



It was pretty cold out there, so we didn't last super long.



It was nice to go back and have cocoa! That evening we were at Jenny's cottage and they stayed up until midnight!



Here are the gamers waiting for the ball to drop.



Happy New Year!