This Christmas we stayed at home vs going to Canada, so we always enjoy going over to the Biris for Christmas Eve - it is a highlight for us! Vasti does a great job of the meal and then games of course! Karis decided that his Christmas jacket needed one more appearance (although thankfully sans the pants and tie!) - Vasti tried it on for size! :)
On Christmas Eve/Day, we had Grandma sleep over and we bought matching pajamas. It was fun to wake up together! Grandma's then boyfriend, Lyle (more on that in an upcoming post) came over for lunch and we spent the day eating and playing games, doing puzzles and of course opening presents!
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| Fierce games of battle ship and trouble! |
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| Decorating a gingerbread house |
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| Even Kaleb got in on the gingerbread house decorating! |
We enjoy doing puzzles, and Karis was introduced to some interesting puzzles from a company called wigsaw, so we brought on of those out!
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| Even Zachary got into the thick of things for a little while |
One of our annual traditions is to write love letters to each other - things that we really like about our family members, what they're good at etc and then to give "the gift of time". We did that and it was one of the kids' favorite times for our Christmas season.
The boys both got electric scooters for Christmas, and they have provided lots of fun!
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| Kaleb is wearing a cape in this adventure! |
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| Always the sweet older brother, Zachary is taking Addison for a ride |
We also took a road trip - first up to Hickory N. Carolina (to look for furniture), then to Asheville N. Carolina (to attempt to go to the Biltmore estates) and then to Gatlinburg for a few days, with a stopover in Chattanooga on the way back. We took Amy's mom with us, and it was a fun time!
In Asheville, we didn't realize that you needed to buy Biltmore Estates tickets beforehand during the holiday season, so we were disappointed to be turned away. Oh well, it does make a memory of the "almost Biltmore Estates sighting!
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| We did walk through the hot house, and Addison thought it was funny to put on Grandma's fogged up glasses for a minute |
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| Zachary carrying his tired sister |
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| What a sweet brother! |
We made up for the disappointment by stopping and getting some ice cream to console ourselves with!
Zachary's hair was getting fairly long on top, and Addison had a grand time making him into a unicorn - again, this brother is one sweet brother to let his sister do this! :)
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Notice her tongue sticking through the open gap in her teeth where she is missing two teeth! |
There was a petting zoo and playground on the estates, so we wiled away some time doing that. Zachary has never been one to swing very much (nor did he really get the whole 'pump your legs' so he was showing off his prowess now but his legs are too long! :)
Addison had fun petting the chickens, goats, pigs and roosters!
With that much driving, there was a LOT of time in the car. We were thankful to not have any accidents. Addison and Grandma entertained themselves by playing the hand game "slap" for a while!
While we were in Gatlinburg, we went over to Dollie-wood - it was more fun than we expected as we have so many theme parks down here - we split up with the boys/Daddy heading off to do rollercoasters and the ladies doing the smaller carnival type rides as well as shows. It was a fun day!
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| On the "scrambler" |
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| Which was so fun that Amy took the boys on it later |
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| Grandma and Addison in a snow globe! |
The Wyndham resort that we stayed at had an indoor waterslide park (super fun) and a pottery painting place. It was really a fun time while we were there - the ladies headed down and we painted Christmas ornaments. The Wyndham resort redeemed Amy's horrific hotel decision on the first night of our trip when she went for the "cheap" hotel option at the Sleep Inn - in which we walked into the room and immediately saw three cockroaches within the first 5 minutes. NO THANK YOU - we immediately checked out and left for the Hampton Inn. The boys sagely told Amy "Mom, we don't think that any hotel less than $100 is decent these days..." Amy grew up when hotels were $25, but she had to agree that perhaps $100 may be the lower threshold to get a place where you don't have to worry about cockroaches climbing into your suitcase and bed while you sleep. Gross!!
On our way home, we stopped by in Chattanooga to see our family and the Hicks. It is crazy, Kaleb is now exactly the same height as Aunt Louise!
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| No visit to Aunt Louise's would be complete without UpJinks! |
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| the whole family |
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| We stayed overnight at the Hicks - we didn't get us an all of the kids, but at least we have record of our layover with dear friends! |
