Holiday Happenings and another bird flies the coop

We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year with Jessica and Michael visiting us. They arrived on Dec 23 and left Jan 1st in the evening.

We are modelling the hats Nathan gave us for Christmas

We cut this tree down from our front yard (they grow like weeds here)

Jessica, Curtis and Mom made graham cracker houses while Dad did a puzzle

Christmas Eve turkey dinner

 

Christmas morning Curtis opens candy and $$ from Grandma Olsen

Trevor got a Kendama toy from Jason and a guitar from us

We tried to do homemade gifts this year.

Trevor made an awesome video game for Curtis!

This is the crazy quilt I made for Curtis, with help from my friend Joanna:)

Homemade pajamas and scarf from mom and hats from Nathan.

Aprons from Gma and Gpa:  "Real men cook with fire"

We had fun playing our new board games:  Befuzzled from Andrei and Trevor's awesome 4-player chess.  We alternated movie nights and game nights.  We also saw the Hobbit in the theater.

Trevor's smiling because he knows he'll eventually win against Michael, Jason and Mom.

We took Jessica and Michael to a fun science center and out to lunch at Five Guys Burgers

We went with Michael & Jessica to the temple.  After our session we helped with family sealings.  We made a quick stop in Concord so they could see where the Revolutionary war began.

On New Year's Eve we drove to Rye to visit the aquarium and see the Atlantic Ocean

Jason's Young Single Adult ward had a party at our church building New Year's Eve.  He performed "A Comedy Tonight" for the variety show.  They also played games.  We brought decorations and refreshments.  It was well attended.

We went to our new friends the Hensch's for New Years Eve.  They are a very musical family and we had a lot of fun playing music and board games until midnight.  It was the first time we watched the ball drop on TV.

We had two snow storms while Jessica and Michael we here - a total of 14 inches!  We sledded in our yard, had snowball fights and did lots of shoveling and snow blowing.

Armed and dangerous!  Trevor is also now LICENSED TO DRIVE!!!

Trevor tried downhill skiing a few times and decided he'd rather snow board.

Jason was ordained an Elder last Sunday.  He arrived in Rexburg today to start Winter Semester at BYU-I.  He flew into SLC and had a great visit with Carl and Velvet before riding the shuttle bus to Rexburg.  We'll miss him, but we're glad he has this opportunity to continue to learn and grow.