Burley Christmas - Michigan

 

It's crazy that January is well on its way to being history!  We celebrated Christmas in Michigan the first Saturday of this month.  We packed as much fun as we possibly could into that short visit!  After arriving fairly late Friday evening and visiting for a couple of hours, we savored a good night's rest and headed further north Saturday morning for breakfast with three of Nate's sisters and a few of Greg's cousins.  Greg's dad's family reminds me so much of my dad's family - we were so glad to get to see them again!

Aunt Joy, Aunt Marlene, Aunt Cindy, and Greg

Evan loves this restaurant because of their amazing hot cocoa -
which they served in a pitcher- with bowls of whipped topping!

Snuggling Emma

 

Saturday afternoon we spent several hours at Craig's Cruisers.
I can't really describe this place - it's huge, with indoor race tracks,
bumper cars, laser tag, arcades, and buffet areas with tons of good food.

Saturday evening we exchanged gifts and visited.  It seemed like we crammed three days into one, but it was fun and we made lots of memories!

Random December Pics

The first day of December, I played for the wedding of Rachel Spencer and Ryan Rose. This was the 3rd wedding in 13 weeks, and all three brides were longtime friends AND former students of mine! I'm feeling old... I didn't get any pics of the wedding, except for this one on my phone at the reception... 

And of course, I have plenty of the kids. :-)

Livvy, Alli, and Suzie

Kait's friend, Emilee, was the Jr. Bride (she's the bride's niece)

Silly girls

Then there was Christmas caroling.  A couple of pics...

And I found a random child in my house...guns and heels...what a gal!

Then the snow came!  This was exciting, considering last winter was so mild and dull.  It was great to have piles of snow during our whole Christmas vacation!

There was sledding at night...

 

And a new sink... 

And then a couple of darling little visitors from Cincinnati that came to stay overnight with Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Greg...

Aubrey and Annie

Boy, did we have fun!

A little game time before bedtime...

And more sledding!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then it was time to say goodbye.  Annie almost warmed up to Uncle Greg. 

 

 

New Year's Eve found us celebrating with a few friends.  We had games, way too much food, and lots of laughter.   

 

  

Some of the partiers found it hard to stay up so late!  :-)

 

 

And that's the wrap on 2012!

Christmas 2012 - Nichols

We had our family Christmas not long after Greg got home from work on Monday. The kids were so much fun to buy for this year! They had their lists, let me tell ya. That, combined with online shopping, makes things a breeze!

I tried to go with the three-gift rule this year.  It ended up that I divided their gifts up into three boxes. Technically they did receive more than three gifts, but it made things lots less complicated to wrap three boxes for each of them.

This year, we placed each of their gifts in front of them, then we began with Allison and had them each take one and go around the room opening the first one and so on.  That gave us all the opportunity to see what the others were getting and slowed things down a bit. 



 

She's still such a little girl at heart!  Her smiles
and giggles are priceless.

Kait was giddy with excitement.  So much fun.

Even the big guys couldn't contain themselves.

Happy!

The Loving Family Dream Dollhouse was the gift of choice this year!

And Rapunzel is ready for her wedding.  :-)

 

After we had our little family Christmas, it was off to my parents to spend the night.  Adam and Valerie were there, and we played games and had a fun evening. 

Another special person was able to join us this year! 
So glad Mama Yount could make the trip. 

While we waited on my brother's family to arrive on Christmas morning, we took random pictures.  It's a great way to distract impatient children. :-)

 



Annie and Kait

 



Allie and Aubrey

Prayer before presents

 

Two of my kids asked for new Bibles with
their names imprinted on the front.

Uh oh...nothing is safe...she has a camera!

Cute and crazy...they loved their fleece blankets!



Check out the Disney nightgowns! 

Lots of coffee, lots of snacks.  :-)

This pic makes me laugh.

Lovin' on their great-grandma

Eric and Meg

Mom and Dad...love them so much!

Adam and Valerie

So pretty.  :-)

Our 16th Christmas!

Since we weren't home Christmas Eve night, the stockings
had to opened Christmas night.  After all, when does Santa come?

Oh yeah...whipped topping in the stocking. 
He asked for a can of cheese too, but...nah...lol.

 

And the festivities continue!