Wrapping up 2021

Now that Christmas is over and things are settling down, Corwin took the brothers to Siegfried's for our traditional lunch.  It's nice to bond over really good food. 

We got an incredible snowstorm to wrap up the year and the kids enjoyed playing on the ATV's. 

For our New Years party, we hosted some of Logan's friends. Jill worked hard to make some amazing food to finish the year and start a new one. 

Here are Logan's friends who came to our house. 

Alyssa went to our church and some neighbors hosted a party at the church.  She came home around 10:00 p.m. and Jill and Alyssa and I watched Encanto.  Landon went to his friend Eric's house.  2021 was a full year and we are excited for 2022 will bring. 

Christmas Day

It's so exciting!  Thankfully we didn't have to wake up and shovel snow this year like we have the last few Christmas mornings.  The children all woke up excited and couldn't wait to open presents. 

The tree was up and lit and presents were scattered around.  Some presents couldn't be wrapped so they stood out a bit. 

The sibling gifts were a huge hit.  The children rotate buying presents for each other.  Landon hit a home run getting Alyssa a personal pancake maker and fancy glasses that she loves drinking from. 

Then independent of each other, Alyssa and Logan got dart boards for the boys. This isn't the first time they have bought the same thing, it can happen when we do all of our sibling shopping at Walmart. 

Other random gifts. 

I surprised Jill with a pasta maker for her Kitchen Aid.  Landon did it for an activity at church and loved home made pasta. 

Jill surprised me with gift cards to Harmon's my favorite place to go for lunch. Also a Yellowstone puzzle to add to our collection of puzzles of places that we've visited.  Another surprise was a golf net I can practice hitting balls in our backyard. 

For a bigger gift, Alyssa got a Lego and a nice coat with fur. 

Logan got weights. 

Landon got some tires that puzzled him. It led him to a bicycle that we hid in the garage.  He loves to ride his bike and some of his friends are getting into Mountain Biking, so now he has a nice mountain bike to ride with them. 

Jill's iPad is older and isn't updating, so I got her a new iPad mini too. Also I got her her a car top carrier for her new Honda Pilot.  We borrowed one from my friend on our trip to Yellowstone, and Jill loved it so much.  Finding a place to put it will be a challenge. 

It was a ski Christmas for me.  My ski's are 20 plus years old so it was time to upgrade.   Seems about every 20 years I get new skis. It was time.  My skis have pointed tips on the ends and nobody skis with pointed tips any more. 

For the children we gave them a trip to Hawaii.  It's been 6 years since they last went and Alyssa was quite young.  We will go back for Spring Break and celebrate an end of COVID! 

After getting everything open, and we got dressed and we left for the Bunkall's.  Judy had made a traditional Christmas breakfast feast with pull apart and breakfast casserole.  We zoomed with the Buxton's who are in Nebraska and then opened our presents.  

There is a theme to the gifts I received.  My hands and feet are always cold in the winter, so the Bunkall's got me some slippers and Rob had a great idea to get me a hand warmer.  Jill is doing more picture taking while I do video, so sadly I don't have a picture of Jill opening her presents from the Bunkall's. 

At noon we arrived at the Bryant's and visited, ate, and opened more presents.  

For dad we got him a Matt's off-road recovery hat.  He loves that YouTube channel so we knew he would love the hat. 

Landon and Alyssa loved their Snuggies that they got from Grandma.  

Logan got a cool Darth Vader lego bust.  

Happy Grandma and Grandpa. 

It was quite a Christmas with everyone getting so many amazing presents. 

We get to enjoy the holiday a bit longer with tomorrow being Sunday.  We got to relax and open and assemble our gifts.  What a fun memorable, full day. 

Christmas Eve

Christmas gets real on December 23rd for Mom's Christmas Adam dinner.  Great company, amazing food, talents, this night has it all. Most of it is on video, but we did get a couple of pictures. The video best represents the night showing everyones talents and the amazing food. The Gren's came up to spend Christmas in Salt Lake.  It's great to see them and her boys sure add a lot of excitement to the holiday. 

The Jake Bryant family added two to the party this year.  Baby Oaklyn was born this year and Jocelyn brought her boyfriend Jordan.  

For our talents this year, Jill stole the show with a dancing piano routine. She laid out the piano mat, and danced on the keys to play a Christmas song.  Logan and Taylor lip-synched to a Christmas wrap song. Landon, Alyssa, and I all played the piano. 

Christmas Eve day we met up at JCW's this year for lunch.  Usually it's Astro Burger, but it was closed on Christmas Eve for some reason.  JCW's was great and the children enjoyed hanging out with cousins and the adults had a nice visit too. 

Later for Christmas Eve dinner we gathered at the Bunkall's for another amazing meal with fancy dishes and decorations.  

Judy teaches the children the piano, so they play some Christmas songs they have been learning. 

Each year Grandpa Bunkall reads from Luke 2 and the children act out the nativity, this year was no different. 

Grandma has a present for them to open and they always get pajama's to wear.  

Tomorrow is the big day.  The children are all getting to be teenagers now, so you would think they wouldn't be quite as excited, but each year it surprises us with how excited they are.  We got to bed around 11:00 p.m. or at least that is when we put them to sleep.  I'm sure they will all be awake until early the next day.