The Christmas Holiday

"It's the most wonderful time of the year;" have any other song lyrics ever had it so exactly right? The Christmas season seemed to have zoomed up and on by this year, just a whirlwind of Christmas cookies, bows, ornaments and candy canes. Still, this season was such a great one for our family. For the first time this year, we decided to buy a gingerbread house kit. I've always had an irrational prejudice against gingerbread house kits; I would picture buying it and finding all the pieces in shambles and it just didn't seem worth it. However, after reading on my sister Kelly's blog about her kids loving to do the kits every year I decided to give it a try. What a great invention! I'm telling you, I've tried making a homemade gingerbread house with kids running around and helpfully messing everything up and it was a nightmare. But this was so easy, it was fun for everyone! Finished product:

On December 22nd we headed out for the 13 hour drive to the coast of Washington where we spent the holidays with my parents on their farm. This is such a fun tradition for our family, we're so thankful to our family there and the love they always show us. Everyone truly opens their schedules up the most they can to spend as much time with us as possible and it makes for a great time for all. Our big Seaberg family Christmas party is held on Christmas Eve, when everyone gathers together at Mom and Dad's house to eat, play games, eat, open presents, eat, and...well, eat! This is a picture of the Seaberg cousins: from left to right there's Miley (Carson's), Jillie (mine), Kelsi (Kelly's), Canon (Carson's) holding Zane (Whitney's), Savannah (mine) holding Tyler (Whitney's), Brodi (Kelly's), Cason (Carson's), and Kamrin (mine). We're getting to be such a big group and we're actually missing Kayley (Carson's), Colton (Kelly's) and Jaxon (mine).
Also on Christmas Eve is the big Valentine family party (my mom's family). We went over there for awhile to say hi to everyone and took this very traditional picture. For as long as I can remember, whenever we had a get together at Grandma and Grandpa Valentine's house (which was at least once a month), we would gather all of us kids on the stairs and withstand a 2 minute photo session. It's so much fun to see this new generation of children following the same tradition! I would name everybody but that would take forever, just know that the Jenny and Annie's kids are also in this picture. Of course, we're missing Laura's kids and loads of great-grandchildren but I promise you, the stairs wouldn't be even close to long enough if everyone was there!

After we got back to my parent's house from my grandparent's house, it was time to get down to serious business. The kids got to open their first Christmas present: new pajamas. Everyone took time to change, then Mom read the Christmas story while the grandchildren held up visual aids at the appropriate times. Afterward, we sang Christmas carols for about 5 minutes when who should arrive at the door but Santa Claus! The kids were so excited, what a great surprise! Santa gave each child a present, then we got to take pictures of our kids with him.

After Santa left, the kids exchanged cousin gifts, then we all opened the crazy amount of presents Mom and Dad got everyone. All the kids got some great toys, but what was really cool was each family got some survival gear, including tents, sleeping bags, a cooler, an emergency radio, and so much more that I can't even think of! Thanks Mom and Dad! After everyone left and we went to bed, Santa must have returned because the next morning when we woke up there were filled stockings for the kids and these huge stuffed animals for the girls!

They love them and keep them on their beds to cuddle with. Jaxon got 2 big trucks that he pushes all over the house and then the stockings were filled with just random fun things.

Christmas day was very relaxing. After the stockings and presents for our own little family, we had a nice breakfast and then another tradition: a tractor ride with Grandpa. My dad hooks a trailor to his tractor and everyone piles in, then he drives all over the farm. It's so fun, the kids have a blast, although at one point Jillie and Jax both fell asleep :)

A couple days after Christmas we got to go to church with my family. The kids got the cutest Christmas outfits from their Grandma and Grandpa Nelson so of course I couldn't resist snapping a couple of shots:

This vacation was the longest one we've ever spent in Washington since Jer and I have been married, and part of the reason why is because I wanted to spend my birthday with my family there. My birthday happens to fall on New Year's Eve and this year I turned the big 30 (I know, crazy huh?) so we had a birthday/New Year's party for me. First, Jer and I went out to breakfast with our kids, then we headed back over to Grandma and Grandpa Valentine's house. Annie and Jenny were there with their kids and Grandma had made a wonderful birthday cake for me, which I still need to get the recipe for. I love spending time at my grandparent's house, it was so much fun and really takes me back to when I was growing up. Afterwards, we went back to my parent's house where we again ate and partied! Kelly and her kids joined us, and Whitney and her boys were there so it was again a loving houseful. Jeremiah and the girls actually made me another birthday cake, with 30 candles and all! Thanks guys, I loved it!




Finally, it was time to toast the new year in. The kids did it early so they could go to bed, but boy did they feel grown up when Grandma let them use her nice goblets and they got to drink sparkling cider!

What a great vacation, thank you to everyone for such a good time...I miss you all already!