Christmas 2012

This year, Christmas Eve was quieter than expected.  Caleb, Kacey and Reyna were expected to fly into Boise on 12/20/2012, however due to issues with the flights, they did not make it as scheduled.  That meant we only ended up with Chase with year.  We ventured to Mark's parent's home for our traditional Christmas Eve festivities.  We had dinner, then this year due to all the changes in plans and only having Chase we decided to stay for the live nativity put on by kids, the talent show and the visit from a special someone.  We didn't do our traditional opening of one present on Christmas Eve (it is always pajamas and Chase found and opened them the day we bought them and has been wearing them for weeks and we weren't going to buy him another pair) and we didn't drive around looking at lights, as we had done it a few times this past month. It was one of Chase's favorite things to do this season (he also discovered his love for hot chocolate)

Than it was off for home to go to bed.  It was an early night and a late morning, as Chase was not completely aware of how things work (thank goodness for one more year of sleep).  He went downstairs finally to get a cookie for breakfast and had quiet a surprise when he saw what he had been asking for for months...slinky dog.  He yelled out, "I told you so".  He just knew he was good enough that Santa would bring him what he wanted.  Then it was off to pick up the girls to bring them back and start opening presents.  Everyone got quite a loot this year.

(Chase wanted me to take a picture of his "family")

After a lovely day, we had a nice Christmas dinner with ham, asparagus, rolls, twice baked potato casserole and chocolate cake for dessert.  We played for family games awaiting the arrival of Kacey, Caleb, and Reyna.  Unfortunately we soon learned that yet again there were issues with their tickets and they would not arrive to us until December 27, 2012...a whole week later than expected.  As a result, we have changed all our plans for this winter break and instead of traveling to Seattle for the New Year, we will be celebrating with all 8 of us with fondue, family and fun.  Stay tuned for more info on that.
Lucky for us, Christmas did turn out to be a white one, so it ended with some snow fun...