My Tricksy Hobbit

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Miscellaneous Christmas Pictures

Here are some random pics from our time up in Iowa.

We roasted hot dogs over the fire.

The three of us snuggled in bed

Arya LOVED the play food in the toy room. She hosted "Lunch" and "Tea" for Gramma Suzanne.

Loving on her new polar bear. (A gift from Gma and Gpa, of course.)

She figured out how to open Gramma's freezer and found this ice cream.

The outside decorations at my parent's house.

My mom has more than 100 nativity scenes. Here are just a few.

Christmas 2011, my Uncle Steve was given a hat. We all took a turn wearing it and this year, Grampa made a display from the pictures.

Shoveling

One of Arya's Christmas gifts was a snow shovel from Gramma Suzanne and Grampa Brian. She LOVED "shoveling" the living room.

(In this picture she is also wearing a coat from Gramma and Grampa. It was mine when I was 2 years old. Every time Arya has worn it she has received compliments on it.)

The day we left she helped Grampa shovel the back patio.

Eventually, Arya started scooping the snow from the yard and putting it BACK on the patio! Bradley said she was explaining "No Grampa! God put it here. Put it back!"

Arya's First Gingerbread House

This Christmas Arya made her first gingerbread house. Of course, we did it as a family. Family activities like this are always some of my favorite times. We are "making memories" as Gramma Suzanne always says.

Arya helped knead the frosting.

Daddy kisses.

End of construction, ready for decorating!

Arya did a wonderful job on the gumdrop walkway ALL BY HERSELF. She had no help on that part.

After the gumdrop walkway Arya got very interested in EATING the rest of the decorations! She kept stealing some, chewing them up and then declaring "Num, num, NUM!" It was funny, but we kept telling her the candies were for decorating not eating. She didn't care, she just kept munching and "num, num, NUM"ing.

The finished product. So pretty, and a good family picture if I do say so myself.

Opening Presents

We opened presents with Grampa Brian, Gramma Suzanne, Aunt Shannon and Uncle Terry on Wednesday, December 26.

Eating M&Ms with Uncle Terry and Aunt Shannon waiting to start.

Arya got gardening stuff from Gramma and Grampa because she is going to help Mommy plant our flower garden this spring.

Trying out her new garden attire and tools.

We got Gramma a kindle. This was her excitement when seeing it.

For Christmas I asked for "useful" stuff that would save us money (paper towels, dish soap, laundry detergent, etc). We are very blessed. There are very few material things I want.

I, like Arya, was given things for the flower garden, Here is a stepping stone that says HOPE. (I collect things with the word Hope on them.)

Shannon got a BIG present. A microwave!

This picture was us being silly. Some of us were noticing pictures were taking when we were scratching our head. So we did one where we ALL were scratching our heads!

These were all the gifts given to Bradley, Arya, and me.