Christmas 2020

This year Andy actually let me buy him some matching Christmas jammies because he wasn't going to be working on Christmas. Per tradition, we opened them on Christmas Eve and immediately put them on. The kids all laughed uproariously at Andy because they've never seen him wear actual pajamas before and apparently they thought he looked hilarious. Usually he just wears a t-shirt and flannel pants, or scrub bottoms or something.

I never remember to take very many pictures on Christmas morning, but here's Colby opening the box of fruit snacks he got from Santa.

Ally was super excited that Santa brought her a new (bigger) bike WITH a kickstand. FYI for those who don't know -- apparently you're not officially a big kid until you have a bike that has a kickstand.

Kylee and Skyler got a trampoline. The kids have been wanting one FOREVER, but I am the party pooper who always says NO WAY. However, Santa seems to have circumvented me, and the kids are enjoying telling every single person in the whole entire world "Mom didn't want us to have a trampoline but SANTA got us one anyway!!" They are some lucky kids, I'll tell you what.

Andy made me this super soft and fluffy photo blanket. I actually shed some tears. It might be the best present I've ever gotten because it's so thoughtful...and I LOVE blankets.

Colby also got Super Mario Uno for Christmas, and along with that he re-discovered his love for Uno in general. He makes anyone he can corner play Super Mario Uno 3 million times in a row. Then when you're so tired of Super Mario Uno you say "NO! Please! I want to play something else!"...he brings out regular Uno to play next. One morning I woke up to see him standing right next to my bed with his deck of Uno cards, waiting for me to wake up so we could play. Who can resist that face?!?

Gingerbread "House" Contest

Because of Covid Andy's employer was unable to have an in-person Christmas party this year, so instead they sent everyone a little gingerbread house kit and decided to hold a contest. The prizes available were: Best Overall - 1st, 2nd, 3rd; Most Creative; and Best Theme.

The rules were that you could add to the kit they sent, but everything on the house itself had to be edible. You could have non-edible stuff on your board only.

We decided to take a break from unpacking (this was just a couple of days after we moved into our house) and make a creation. Since this was a company-wide contest I didn't even want to attempt Best Overall, so we decided to go for Best Theme. Ally has some tiny Frozen figurines, so we decided to build an ice palace.

You were supposed to take photos to submit with your final creation video, so Kylee was the designated photographer.

We quickly realized that we were in way over our heads and we were going way overboard, but we were already committed, so it was too late to turn back!

The tiny house on the front of this is the actual house from the kit they gave us.

We took a break from gingerbread building to put up our Christmas tree as well.

 100 million hours later (or maybe just 13-14 hours EACH), it was done. The blue windows were supposed to light up too, but we forgot to cut the holes in the gingerbread. There ended up being about 35 entries in to the contest, many of which were AMAZING!...and we ended up winning Best Theme, just like we set out to do. We got a $100 gift card and the joy of knowing all our efforts were worth it. Or were they? Who knows. But the kids loved the ice palace and it sat in our house for several weeks until Skyler ate so much of it that it collapsed.

New House

We closed on our new house on December 15, and started moving in that week. These photos are not in any kind of good order and there are still some boxes and messes in some of them...but they at least give you an idea of what our house looks like.

This is the office/study. There is no window because it's not on an outside wall, so it has a ceiling skylight:

This is the main living area (taken from the kitchen). The arch and door on the left go to the Master bed/bath. The door straight ahead through the arch on the right is the office/study. Down the hall to the right through that arch is the mud nook, bathroom, Ally, Skyler and Colby's bedrooms, and the laundry room. Down the hall to the right of this photo (not through the arches) is the front door, Kylee's room, bathroom, 2nd Living room.

The two kids' bathrooms look like this. One by Kylee's room, one on the other side of the house by the other kids' rooms. 

This is the "family entrance"/mud nook area. Taken from the laundry room door. The garage comes into the laundry room, then this is right outside the laundry room. The door you can see on the far right of this photo is Ally's room, and right next to it is Skyler's room. On the left of this photo is Colby's room and the bathroom. The door you can see on the left wall is a storage closet. The door at the far end of the hall on the right is the office/study. The double doors at the end are a linen closet.

This is taken from the archway by the study/office. The dining room is in the alcove off the side of the kitchen, and the doors to the patio are on the dining room wall.

This is looking from the main living room down towards the front door. Through the arch on the right is Kylee's room, then the bathroom, then down at the end (you can see that the door is open) is the second living room. The door on the left wall in this photo is the coat/vacuum closet.

This is the covered patio. The windows straight across are the Master bedroom.

Ally got wall stickers and a comforter set for Christmas.

Skyler got his Super Mario stickers again to go with his Super Mario comforter.

This is looking from the front door down towards the main living room. The door you can kind of see on the far left of the photo through the arch is the linen closet for this side of the house.

Kylee wanted the same teal dots that she had in Idaho, so we got those put up, too.

This is a photo of the 2nd Living Room, taken from the doorway.

This is taken from the corner opposite the door way. The closet on the left is the game closet, and the one on the right is just a regular closet for jackets or other random stuff.

We got all our pictures hung.

Colby's room has a Mickey Mouse theme.