Christmas 2015

** This post will be backdated to Dec25

This year was the first Christmas with our kitties. Although Oreo is over a year old, we didn't get him until this past January (when he was four months, Introducing Oreo).  We put the tree up right after Thanksgiving was over ... we never got around to decorating it. We were just a little afraid of what the kitties would do (we've watched all those YouTube videos!) It still looked pretty, with just the lights that were woven onto the branches, and the kitties spent a lot of time up and in the tree. They never knocked it over though.

I didn't get around to pulling out much decor this year. I put the wreath on the front door, pulled out two or three of the favorites, finally put up the stockings shortly before Christmas Eve ... but of course we MUST put out the Santa head filled with red and green M&Ms! Unfortunately, our little Santa head did fall victim to the kitties curiosity. It was knocked over onto the hard floor and it broke. Keaton superglued it back together (but see the crack?) It still held candy just fine, and I can not believe how many packages we went through!

We have a pre-Christmas party on the Blackham side a few days before Christmas. This year, it was Monday, December 21. There was a little dinner and visiting and then ... you would not believe who showed up. Santa Claus AND his wife! They had little gifts for all the grandkids, even the big ones who are almost too big for Santa's lap ...

Colton is SO cute Mrs. Claus couldn't help but kiss him!

All the grandkids

... and the entire Blackham Bunch!

On Christmas Eve ... we head over to my folk's home.

Soup and breadsticks for dinner. Grandpa had the clever idea of putting Santa hats upside-down in Grandma's glass vases. It was a very festive look! I'd made the annual Westra Slideshow and calendar (although I didn't get the calendar printed in time to make it to the family party, dang it. You can see both on What's Up with the Westras. ) Even though we show my muvee every year, we can never remember how to get it onto the television. See all the men trying to figure it out in the top/right picture! The bottom/left is all the kids playing the candy bar game, another Westra tradition.

I was not feeling well Christmas Eve, and upon returning home, I went to bed. Gray had "Santa" duty, but pretty much everything was already wrapped and under the tree. He just had to stuff the stockings. I wish we'd got a picture of it all. In the morning, the kids had sorted all the presents into proper piles, and pulled in a big garbage can ready for all the paper and boxes.

It was a WHITE Christmas!

We got dumped on.

We went out to Maga's for a bit, then came home awaiting our call from Landon. It was funny to have been following Facebook on Christmas day, as in was inundated with missionary call posts and pictures. I guess we are just at that age where so many of our friends are in a similar situation. We finally got our call to go through, and our 40min Skype conversation went so fast. Landon looked and sounded great (except for the very end, when he ate a little dessert, which had walnuts in and started to have an allergic reaction! Not life threatening, but I could hear it in his voice/coughing as his throat swelled some). Makes things memorable!

Landon sent me this picture ... I LOVE it!