steve and tif: Christmas 2014: Big Shindig in Maryland

Is it too late for a Christmas post?

Better late than never!

The hot topic during December was not WHAT we wanted for Christmas but WHO was coming for Christmas. The kids always knew exactly how many days there were until Christmas not because it was Christmas but because that was the day we had family flying in to town. Every day the girls would ask me to tell them who was coming again and again and I would name everyone that was coming. It never got old and it always brought smiles.

Lucky for us, we didn't have to wait all the way until Christmas day for the guests to arrive. Lacey, Tyler, and Colton drove in from Indiana a few days before Christmas. We decided to meet them at Cafe Rio (45 minutes away) on their way to our house (we couldn't wait any longer!)

On the way to Cafe Rio we let the kids try out our DVD player in the car for the first time. You can almost see the drool. :)

On Christmas Eve we gave the kids new pajamas and watched a movie.

On Christmas morning Steve broke out the camera and did some pictures of the kids in front of the tree.

Livy

Kylee

Cody

All the kids together.

We opened gifts, ate cinnamon rolls, and made hundreds of tamales in preparation for everyone else arriving Christmas night. Christmas dinner was so good: tamales and bottled sodas. Then we opened more presents...all at once. It was a very happy night.

Rylee and Kylee playing in their nightgowns.

Rylee and Livy both got Sofia the First nightgowns and Kylee got a special nightgown made by Grandma Tammy.

Kylee had three things on her Christmas list: a nightgown, a Bible, and a scripture case and Grandma Tammy and Grandpa Airplane delivered all three.

We were lucky to have pretty good weather during that week. One day was warm enough to play at the park for a bit.

Colton

Austin

Livy

Colton

On Steve's birthday we went to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Udvar-Hazy Center (AKA the Airplane Museum). The little girls didn't last too long and Grandma saved the day by taking them to the in-house McDonald's so the rest of us could listen to Gordon share cool stuff about the airplanes.

Cody was a trooper and had lots of fun. His sisters gave him this new BYU hat for Christmas and he pretty much sleeps in it. You can also see that front tooth dangling by a thread. He lost it a few days later.

Steve and I in front of one of Steve's favorite airplanes: F-14

Livy wanted to be in charge of a stroller at all times and Colton was King of the Snacks.

Cody and Kylee would wake up early in the morning and analyze the score sheets from the games the adults played the night before. Cody had to see what games he had missed and who had won. And Kylee liked to check out the handwriting.

The night before everybody was flying out we played games and then Grandma left a note ("Grandma is the coolest") for the kids to find after they woke up and everyone was already at the airport. Kylee wrote a message back that we texted to Grandma.

Steve set up a Christmas light backdrop to experiment with and he had lots of kids to practice on. Lacey and Steve had a lot of fun taking pictures. Colton is so good at smiling and saying cheese for the camera.