Thanksgiving to Christmas and everything in between

OK, so here are our Holiday in review, I tried to get the pics on myself but for some reason our computer wouldn't upload, so I was dependant on Mikes help from work, (thanks Mike your the best). So for Thanksgiving this year we (White's) rented a cabin up near Brighton and went up there for a few days to celebrate and just spend time together it has been a few years since we have all been able to go on a trip together. It was so much fun and The Best Thanksgiving ever!This is a long post sorry but I hope you enjoy our holidays as much as we did.

my dad making his famous waffles for breakfast
Below is a poker game going on at the cabin, Sooo Intense! Here are the guys watching football
the kids doing crafts with our own Mary Poppins aka Shawna
another poker game
Mike and Blanca helping the kids with stuff before sitting for dinner
Thanksgiving Dinner
We had so much fun the kids were able to sled right outside the door down the driveway, one of the days they spent hours out there. We all Made Pies together on Wednesday night and cooked together Thursday morning. My dad made his famous waffles, Troy made us breakfast burritos we played other games and got in the hot tub, we girls even drove down for Black Friday at midnight... Seriously best ever.

The kids sledding down the driveway

Next in the season we had our annual dance recital, Tiffany broke it into two shows and the Dance Team was suppose to do both shows, well the first number of the first show Winter fell and sprained her ankle really bad and wasn't able to perform the rest of the day, she was heartbroken and so was I, I was really looking forward to her solo that I had yet to see. At first the Dr. (who totally looked like Uncle Buck) told us her foot was broken but then a few days later they called us back and said upon further review from radiology its just a sprain. None the less no dancing for Winter for 4 weeks.

Zarley in her number

Zar again she had a cute song this yr. Zthat you Santa Clause
Winter moments before the big injury

We went to the Nutcracker for Winters Bday with some dance friends and to watch one of her Best Friends Lexi perform.

The cake our nice neighbor made for Winter
Then came time for the preschool program, I love it, I have seen it 6 times now and still love it and can't wait for the next two with Xman. Owen knows the songs and gets so excited then kind of looks like a dud when the time comes to perform, I am wondering if he has a little stage fright.

Next in our season we had a few different Ugly sweater events. I had an ugly sweater Bunco party which was tonz of fun, Mike had an ugly sweater party at work on his bday, and Winter planned an ugly sweater day at school. She was so excited to wear her sweater to school. (thanks grandma Sharon for providing her sweater for her.)

Mike and Winter in their sweaters. notice how they pretty much hide our
Charlie Brown tree. I told you it was a sad little tree.

Audrey and Shawna at Bunco, Shawna was the winner
with her homemade sweater that really had working lights.

side note, we also had Mikes Birthday in the mix, which we celebrated on Christmas eve with his family, but I don't have any pictures of that.
Next came Christmas, we were absolutely horrible at pictures this year, we even took our camera with us and just didn't take any pictures Pathetic I think so.

the loot before the kids came down except Xavier's his is in the other corner of the room that is not shown here.

opening gifts

out of order but pics of the kids as they came down the stairs to open gifts.

On Christmas Eve we had breakfast with my family, and we read the story out of the bible and get pajama's from the pajama fairy, then I did some last minute shopping, then we headed to the Howard's for Mikes bday and there Christmas eve, which is mostly the same as ours we get pajamas and an ornament from the Christmas Tree and read Twas the Night before Christmas. This year Kerry and Our family each got a copy of the book with the recording, David reading the story and it is pretty cool. Some of the Howard's left for a while and went to church while the rest of us stayed and made cookies and just played, then we ended our night and went home to bed. In the morning we wake up and open our gifts, then my parents come over for Breakfast and to bring the kids their gifts and see what Santa brings them, I love this my grandparents use to do the same thing I Love that my parents get to see what ALL their grand kids get for Christmas, they don't watch us open but they make the rounds to every ones house to give gifts and spend some one on one time with each family, seeing that they don't have little people anymore but want to enjoy some of that fun and excitement. Then we head to the Howard's for the opening of gifts with them. I made Jackson and Wyland some superhero capes, I was quite proud of myself,(thanks for the help audge!) then we have a nice dinner and do our cracker things (English tradition). Then it was off to the studio for fun with my family. My mom hosts Christmas dinner with her family then when that ends all of us siblings and the kids exchange gifts. Shawna provided us with all the stuff to play Minute to Win It. It was a lot of fun, thanks for the game Shawna and like I said we sucked at picture taking. That wraps up our Christmas fun. New years again No pics, but we just hung out and played Poker then the next night all adults(my siblings) met for dinner with our ugly sweaters and then went to Shawna and Andrews for games. It was fun. I love how close my family is and even though there are a ton of us and it is loud and crazy we still have so much fun together and we all get along and mesh so well even though there are so many different personalities. Here's to a Happy New Year, hope its even better then last year.