Christmas Break Activities

We spent a few days after Christmas in Houston with our friends and then they came up to Dallas for a few days.  We played lots of games, watched movies, went on a river cruise and did some skating- both roller and ice.   The kids even got to stay up till Midnight on New Years Eve and celebrated by jumping into the freezing pool from the hot tub.  It was a party every day.

Christmas Day 2014

We had a magical Christmas morning with some fun presents and treasured time together.  Even though it was a supposed to be a smaller Christmas the kids still managed to get pretty spoiled.

 One of the most entertaining gifts was this dog sweater that Santa gave Makenna to give to Dallas.  Makenna had asked for a sweater for Dallas for Christmas and she got it.  He didnt love it at first but I think its grown on him ;)

 Brayden was delighted to get his Disney Infinity game that he wanted.  Emmitt was spoiled with lego and Makenna and Brielle both got some fun things for the AG dolls.

After we opened presents and played with our loot for a while we loaded up and headed to the Thomas' in Houston, where we enjoyed a delicious ham dinner and some great company.

Six Flags

Over Christmas break we decided to use some six flags passes Kevin had bought had a charity auction at work.  We invited the kids friends Nolan and Emmy to come along and we all had a great time.

Poor Emmitt was just a teenie tiny bit too short for most of the rides he wanted to go on.  He was a good sport though and didnt have a fit when he got turned away.  He had a good time with mommy on the smaller rides.

 They had some swings that went super high.  That was quite a thrill!

Christmas Eve 2014

On Christmas Eve, we went bowling.  A few of us also did laser tag and played video games.  Emmitt kicked all our butts at bowling.  Makenna was not feeling well but she was a trooper.

 Then we thought it would be a fun experience to take the kids to one of those asian restaurants where they cook in front of you.  It was a fun experience but not one we will likely repeat with the kids.  It wasnt exactly their favorite food and it was quite a hefty price tag for food they didnt even like.  But they loved watching the cooking.  That was cool and enjoyed by all.

 After dinner we drove around to look at some Christmas lights and then came home to open our Christmas jammies from grammy :)  We did our own little program with the acting out of the nativity with toys this time, reviewing our "gifts to Jesus", having some Christmas numbers played on the piano and reading the Karen Marie story.  Then we set out the cookies and the reindeer food and tracked Santa online.  Then it was off to bed, off to bed...

Tradition

We made our graham cracker houses again this year and it was a milestone year because my kids were all able to independently work on their houses.  I helped Emmitt with the structure but otherwise he did all the decorating.  It makes it less stressful now that they are older and so much fun to see what their creative minds produce.

Our Family Cruise

Well it all started mid November when I started to think about what I should get the kids for Christmas.  I was really hating the idea of buying anything really.  With our move we have worked so hard to de junk our home that I just really detested the thought of buying our kids more "stuff."  So we decided a better option would be to give them an experience and we had been wanting to take our kids on a cruise and to a beach for sometime now that we thought this might be a better use of our Christmas funds.  We brought the idea to the kids and proposed that instead of a lot of gifts we just go on a cruise.  Most of them loved the idea.  The only one hesitant was Brayden mostly because he was worried about our ship sinking or losing Emmitt overboard.  Fears which he fortuntately quickly overcome.  So we looked into it and booked our family on a Carnival cruise leaving out of Galveston on December 6.  We couldn't go during exam time at school and the prices were outrageous over actual Christmas time so we had an "early" Christmas present enjoying our cruise present before Christmas.  The cruise was made exponentially more fun when our friends the Thomases decided to come along.  Now it was a real party!

Day 1
We drove to Houston the night before and attended the Thomases ward Christmas party in the morning.  After a lovely Christmas breakfast we loaded up in our vans for Galveston.  The first picture is of our kids waiting at the port terminal while the dads parked the vans.  It was quite a sight to see that many kids lined up and we began to ask ourselves if we were crazy for doing this.  Then we got into line (see pic on the right) and waited for over 2 hours to check in and then we were no longer wondering if we were crazy- we knew that yes indeed we were crazy.  The bottom picture is the kids on the bridge to get onto the ship.  As we walked on Emmitt was chanting, "I'm so excited, I'm so excited"  So even though we knew we were crazy for doing it, we also knew it was going to be fun fun fun!

 Once on board we checked out the ship and headed to the buffet.  It was a bit chaotic figuring it all out.  Once we later on found our central spot, the buffet and mealtimes went a lot more smoothly.

Then it was time for the family dance party.  That was a hit with both young and old.  Afterwards the adults went to dinner in the dining room and the kids spent some time at kids club.

DAY 2
 This was a sea day so we decided to try out brunch in the dining room.  The kids loved having their own table and all the food was delicious!

 Then we filled the rest of the day with swimming, waterslides, kids club, Dr Seuss activities, and of course - ice cream.  They had 24 hour ice cream machines and the kids had free reign so needless to say they ate A LOT of ice cream.

 Then dinner was formal night, so Emmitt went to kids club (hooray for kids club) and the other kids got fancied up and joined us for a comedy show and fancy dinner in the dining room.  Brayden tried alligator and Makenna ordered lobster.  It was so fun to experience it all with the kids.

Day 3

Cozumel.  This day was incredible.  We taxied ourselves to a beach club called Playa Mia.   It was gorgeous and not crowded at all and perfect for the kids with a beautiful beach and pool and tons to do.  This was one of those days I wish I could live over and over again.

 So the inflatables in the ocean were a blast but there was a drawback.  In swimming to and from them, we all got a bit attacked by the jellyfish.  Here Makenna is showing off her wounds.

Brielle LOVES the beach- can you tell?

On the way back to the ship it started to rain- perfect timing!

jkj

DAY 3 Progresso Mexico

After the cruise when Emmitt was asked what his favorite part of the cruise was he always answered "the rooms."  Those small little hole like cabins were his favorite part.  I dont know if it was sleeping with his family or sleeping on the ship or what but he loved the rooms :)

First order of business upon arriving in Progresso was outfitting everyone with sunglasses so they (and by they I mean Brielle) would stop stealing mine :)

Then we joined a tour bus that drove us to a beach club which was a bit less kid friendly than our experience in cozumel.  It was more of an adult (want to get really drunk) crowd.  Hopefully our kids didnt see too much.  It was funny though when we boarded the bus and the tour guide was giving his shpeel he said "now we have A LOT of kids on our bus today"  But when I looked around the only kids were the ones in our group - which yes I guess was a lot :)

The beach was not nearly as beautiful as Cozumel but the kids loved that there was some waves they could ride and it was shallow really far out so they had a good time playing in the ocean there.

 There was a great pool area the kids enjoyed.  I think the highlight was cracking a few coconuts and drinking the coconut water.  Another fun experience to have with the kids.

And on the way back to the ship we fit in some souvenir shopping.

 And here they are- "A LOT of kids" (and two are missing from this picture)

 

Here is Emmitt when we picked him up from kids club.  They had a pirate party that night.  A few times they painted his face and he wouldnt let us wash it off so he was always quite a sight.

Day 4 At Sea

Filled with eating, mini golf, hot tubbing, basketball, towel folding, more comedy shows and fun fun fun!

All in all it was a great time and a very Merry "Cruisemas" indeed.

Thanksgiving

This year Oma and Opa joined us for our Thanksgiving Feast.  We had a nice dinner early in the day so that the older two kids and Opa and Dad could go to the Dallas Cowboys football game.  Kevin had won the coveted tickets at work.  Later that evening Oma played games with the little kids while I snuck out to Target for just a short Black Friday (on Thursday) shop.  Then when we were all home together, we hit the hot tub.  All in all, it was a great day with yummy food, fabulous company and fun times.  We have so so very much to be thankful for!

ICE!

The Gaylord hotel here hosts an ICE exhibit every December and we heard it was quite a sight to behold.  We were lucky to have Oma here to join us and our friends the Schaaks as we checked out the 2 million pounds of hand carved Ice.  The theme was Frosty the Snowman and I think the highlight for the kids was the slides carved from ice that the kids could slide down.  I liked the hand carved nativity.  It was all pretty cool and we had a great time freezing our little bottoms off.  Ironically it was warmer outside than it was in there.  I guess that's Christmas in Texas!

My Soccer team

About half way through this soccer season, I could see Brielle's enthusiasm waning and her coach seemed not very invested in the team so I just politely offered to take over for him.  He was thrilled to give me the team and said it was an answer to prayer for him.  I have of course no soccer experience but I wanted Brielle to have a good experience so I gave it a try.  With a lot of help from the internet I learned drills and soccer techniques and we muddled our way through the rest of the season.  I started out stressed about it but ended up just loving it.  I loved the girls and the games and watching them improve and enjoy themselves.  It was a great experience.    I sure hope Brielle keeps up with soccer and maybe next season lands herself a coach who both loves the team and knows the game. 

GO DYNAMOS!