It's hard to keep up in December

I'm admitting defeat.  I tried to do it weekly, but well, last Sunday WAS Christmas and I was still catching up.  Maybe I should allow a bi-weekly allowance during December:)

We did have a nice Christmas break this year.  We had from Wednesday December 21-through Wednesday December 28th off completely from the office and a break that long was the first for Brad and I.  Last year I think we worked up until the 23rd and I had to get to work on the Christmas stuff right away.  I even had time to write a Christmas letter this year but I didn't get it out :/  Next year I'm writing it in October if I can remember.

While Kenzie and I were busy cooking and prepping for Christmas day the boys started a project together building this:

Projects like this always create good family memories together.  Plus, they develop woodworking skills.

The only thing left to do now is stain it.

Harry Potter fever was revived in our family this past Christmas Break as I got the Library books for Jake to read at home.  I'm trying to propel him on to harder reading levels because Jake kind of slides by reading only what he has too.  Kenzie and Riley completed the whole series during the break and Jake is on book three.  We again watched the first and second movies for Jake.  He's never seen them...or can't remember seeing them.  Not sure which.

We decided to have Christmas one day early due to the fact that Christmas was on the Sabbath.  While, yes, Christmas does go quite nicely with the Sabbath day when we focus on Christ, both Brad and I felt the opening of presents would be better on a day other than the Sabbath.  So, we had Christmas Eve on the 23rd and Christmas on the 24th.  Santa Claus had to wake up early because he forgot to deliver a present under the tree and all the little children awoke with him.  We are mean parents though and made them stay in bed until 8:00 am.  Even Kenzie, our sleeper-iner, was up and excited.

A lot of great and thoughtful gifts were given.  Jake made everyone his own gifts this year.  Most were pretty cute.

(Yes, I'm not afraid to put ugly pictures of me on here if it shows the gift.)

While others, were well...interesting.

We're pretty sure it's meant to be a paper holder with pictures of all the family on the block.  And yes, the pictures pop out.

Riley was sweet and spent all the money he had earned for shoveling dirt in the back yard on presents for each and every one.

Ben, well, he gifted us his treehouse.

And yes, Kenzie and Jordan gave gifts too.  Jordan gave me a 3D vase he had made in school with a 3D printer.  Unfortunately, it leaked water and we can't use it as a vase.

I got Brad a picture of his favorite mountain to back country ski to put up in our room.  Here's him pointing to a couple of the spots he likes to tour there.

Brad got me a heart rate monitor.  At least, I think it's for me, but he obviously meant it for dual use as it was a man's heart rate monitor.

Regardless it works for me.  Now I know I have a resting heart rate of 55, a threshold heart rate of 165, and a maximum heart rate of 190.  It also keeps track of calories burned during my workouts...he bought this cause Coach Troy (my personal DVD biking trainer) told us we should have one.  And yes, me and Coach Troy are tight.  Right now during winter we spend at least two work-out sessions together and this week we spent four.  Brad's a little jealous.

Jake got...

 6 rolls of masking tape!  Really!  And even though I didn't catch it...he was SO excited because he could use it whenever.  This pleased Brad immensely because he thought Jake would love it but really went out on a limb here.

This may have been our simplest Christmas yet and our most enjoyable.  I actually loved separating the present opening and the worship of the Savior.  It made for two very peaceful Christmas days together.

 (Yes, there is a funny story here about the neck pillow but it's too long to go in here and everyone from our immediate family will get the joke.)

 As for the rest of week...we took plenty of selfies to prove to myself I could look good and without double chins in pictures since all the christmas ones are terrible.  Different themes in each.

Fun...

 Sophisticated...

And silly....

Brad and I took a day trip to Denver for office business.  That was fun. We woke at 4:00 in the morning and didn't get back until 8:30 at night.

And the kids played lots of games...risk and settlers.

Oh, and Ben got rid of that crazy hair.

Before:

 After:

And just so you know, it's equally as hard to tame short as it is long.