Christmas Roundup

The title makes it sound like some sort of a rodeo or INS action.  Nothing quite so exciting.  Just a quick summary of our Christmas doings.

Ella finished her gymnastics class.  She really enjoyed it and was full of energy, but ultimately decided that she wasn't willing to miss out on the big dance extravaganza in May, so she switched to their old studio and is thrilled to be in the same class as Sarah.  Look forward to some fun dance concert photos in May.

Kate did a super job as one of Santa's elves at her annual preschool christmas program.

The two big girls had a glorious time going to see the Nutcracker Ballet with mom and their two grandmas. The production was really well done and the girls even got to get a souvenir nutcracker from the gift shop. What a fun outing! Thanks grandmas!

We loved having family around over Christmas.  We had a couple of fun get togethers with Allen's family and I saw all but two of my 8 siblings.  I like them all lots. Our little family enjoyed a delightful dinner with all of the other Buskirks around (Shari, Kev, Kristina, & Andrew).

Afterwards we got together with assembled Smiths and did our Christmas Eve festivities at our house.We had a reading of the Christmas story from Luke. Mary & Joseph.  A baby in a manger, seeking shepherds,  Angels on high.  The whole works. (I must interject here that I have become terrible at taking photos.  I always forget.  So some of these are thieved from others blogs -- thanks Candice and Kristina for your trusty reporting!.  I sure hope that mom/bethy have even more)



Happiness abounded all around.  After the nativity play, we gathered 'round the piano and sang all of our family traditional songs.  Then we had some solos and duets, Anna played the violin, Ben, Ella and Sarah played the piano for us all.  We had jingle bell solos by Samantha, Leah & Livvy.  A musical smorgasbord!  It is definitely my favorite family Christmas tradition.





The girls unwrapped their Christmas Eve jammies and scooted off to bed before even all of our guests had left.  They were so excited!



Christmas day brought some fun new things.  We had our own little family Christmas at home including a delicious breakfast made by Allen (it is really working out well for me to have a husband who loves breakfast) and plenty of time to enjoy opening presents from each other and from Bry & Candice and Kev & Kristina (thanks for the fun stuff!)



Our big Christmas gift was a new TV from all the grandparents and a Wii from Santa.  Fun times!  After playing at home for a while, we headed up to Grandma Buskirk's to open presents from her and spend some time.  She made a wonderful brunch including this very cool Rudolph cake.


The girls were thrilled and surprised by the really thoughtful gifts she bought for them.  Sarah's little flip camera was a major part of our entertainment for the rest of the holidays as was the sing it wii game Ella got.  Leah was ecstatic at the Elmo toys she got.  What could be better than something that plays Sesame Street music to sing along to?  And Kate's fun zhu zhu pet is a really cool pet substitute (since their mom will never let them get any pest besides rocks).


After that, we headed to Nana & Opa's to see the Smith clan. (Another gap in my picture taking).  By the end of it all Leah was positively drooping in the car on the way home.  Having fun can just be so tiring!



We were thrilled on the 27th to have a chance to get together with the Johnsons and Buskirks for dinner at Shari's.


Sarah enthralled Andrew with some of the cool little videos she's been shooting. (sorry for the demon eyes.  I'm too lazy to go back and fix all the red eyes)



We exchanged gifts with the Johnsons who gave the girls an Easy Bake Oven and game--another dream come true.



It is so great to spend time with the family!



On the 29th we headed up to Soldier Hollow for our 2nd annual Buskirk Tubing Day.  What a blast.  It was snowing and much colder than last year, but the little handwarmer things we bought did a great job of keeping things tolerable.



This is just moments before we all headed down a run together and I somehow was bumped out of my tube and went the whole way down headfirst on my back using my feet to keep the other tubes from running me over.  It was actually a really fun experience!  Luckily I was hanging on to a bunch of leashes, so I didn't have to walk all the way back down =)

Bethy & the Blacks came to stay after Christmas and the kids loved having constant happy company and partners in crime.  One of the days, it was super snowy outside and we didn't want to go out, so we did a craft.  I'd found a pattern for some tote bags (Thanks Traci!) and we picked out fabric for everybody ahead of time.  Each of the kids (except Leah) helped with their own bag and designed the applique name label.  We were able to get all 6 done in one day.  Sometimes I think things would be more productive around here if I had a sister wife . . .  Didn't these turn out super cute?




Anyway.  So that covers all of the holiday events that I remembered to take pictures of. Fun times!