Thanksgiving through Christmas

So, it has been a long time since a post has been posted to this blog.

Life has been pretty busy, but not more than usual. All photos are courtesy of my phone--we have a hard time finding the time to edit photos from the real camera. Hence, most of our memory cards are chuck full of photos, waiting to be edited.

Here is a run down of our happenings, from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

Cass and I saw our first NHL game--that was pretty sweet game to see. We had pretty good seats courtesy of my boss. I think this was make sure my wife didn't completely hate my boss for having me work two weeks straight.



We had Thanksgiving dinner at my parents house. Cass successfully her first debut of homemade dinner rolls. She made four dozen dinner rolls! Everyone at the dinner table was happy to eat her trial run of dinner rolls. The boys really enjoyed having sparkling cider!



After Thanksgiving, we took a trip up to Six Flags. Six Flags was decorated with Christmas lights and Christmas goods. The boys really liked going to a real theme park. They rode most of the kid rides and enjoyed all that they rode. After eating a giant bag of kettle corn, we headed over to the dolphin tank. We were the only people at the tank. The boys stood behind the glass and played with the dolphins--it was really cool to see the dolphin interact with the boys. The boys would turn and the dolphins would turn! The boys would jump and the dolphins would jump! It was sad to say goodbye to the dolphins after this little adventure.







Cass and I took a weekend away to visit her friend in Portland. We really loved going to Portland and seeing the sights. We made our way through the Powell bookstore, saw the Portland temple, watched the new Sherlock Holmes movie, and spent time with Dave and Holly. All in all, a very fun visit. Thanks Mom and Dad for watching the boys!





After our weekend away, it was time to for Christmas. Arie decided that we didn't have a Christmas tree up fast enough, so he made his own.



We did set up the Christmas tree (only to have the ornaments used as toys) and kept the presents in our closet to keep away from the prying eyes. On Christmas Eve, the boys set out a plate of Reese's peanut butter cups (Santa at our house really likes those) and nine carrots. Finn was super persistent that we set out carrots for each of the reindeer. We took a video of the whole process--I will have to post that later. Pretty funny though. Arie wrote a long note to Santa. Arie didn't ask for anything different than before (which is good since Cass and I were getting nervous that the boys had changed their minds about what they wanted for Christmas).

On Christmas morning, Arie and Tate woke up a handful of times (at 1 AM, 3 AM, 4 AM, 5 AM to name a few). The last time, Cass found them under the Christmas tree opening their presents. When 7:30 AM rolled around, everyone was still sleeping from all of the commotion earlier. We woke them up so they could open their presents (sweet justice). Their presents ranged from a large tipi to Cars2 characters to transformers. They really enjoyed opening up all of their presents from their grandparents, parents, and Santa. Thanks to the grandparents for sending gifts!

After attending church (which was pretty painful for the boys since they only wanted to play with their toys all day), Cass whipped up four dozen dinner rolls, chocolate pie, and a fresh green bean casserole. I am sure glad that my wife loves to cook and does an awesome job at it. Between cooking and baking, we managed to talk to most of my east coast siblings and talked to Cass' family. Talking on facetime really makes it easier to feel like family is a lot closer than a couple of thousand miles away (not trying to advertise for Apple).

Since Christmas, we have cleaned the house, cleaned the house again, played with the news toys and the old toys, and relaxed. Everyone has been content with what they gave and received. It was really a Merry Christmas at our house.