Christmas 2016

Baking

I had a bit of a baking party going on this past weekend.  My Aunt Rhonda, mom, and sister joined me in baking Christmas goodies the year before last.  We decided to make it an annual thing, but missed out on doing it last year.  We were determined to make it happen this year.

We had the same crew along with Rhonda's son's girlfriend, Emily.  We did lots of eating, laughing, baking, and perhaps a bit of drinking by some.

Friday night we just hung out and enjoyed each others company.

Saturday we spent the morning making all kinds of Christmas goodies.

 

Oliver also joined us this year.  He was sure to get the peanut butter jars cleaned out and not waste a bit.

Our crew!

I can't wait to do it again next year.

Weekend Routines

On weekends, we usually have a few things that we try to do each and every weekend.  

#1 is spend at least one day in our jammies.  This isn't always possible, but I definitely try my best to make it happen.

#2 is make breakfast.  This is usually a job for my assistant, Oliver, and I.  When I'm cooking he always wants to see and once he sees he then wants to help.  Most of the time, he is a good helper and follows directions well.  B&G was on the menu for day.

Riley's involvement was making some Tang...delicious, but not so nutritious.

It's been a while since we have had biscuits and gravy, but it was ranked with big smiles from Ollie and an 11.2 by Riley.  (Riley ranks my cooking on a 1-10 scale to give me a better idea of how he likes something, especially new recipes.  The rating system is better than the typical, "It's alright" that I used to get.)  

I've never scored above a 10 so this was a big win! ;)

#3 on our list of weekend things is laundry, the dreaded laundry.

Oliver does like to help so at least you've got a cute assistant.  Now if only he could fold...

Day Date

Last Christmas Riley and I received movie passes from my Aunt Rhonda and Uncle Chris.  Along with the movie passes also came the offer to babysit Oliver.  We finally got around to using them so we had a day date in Topeka while Aunt Rhonda babysat.

From the pictures I received, I'd say they had a pretty good time.

Night of Lights

Just as we did last year, we attended the Annual Night of Lights in downtown Horton.  When I was a kid, it was standing in the middle of the 4 corners, eating popcorn, drinking hot chocolate, signing Christmas carols, and waiting for Santa to arrive.  Now there may have been more than that, but that's what I remember.

Reinvent Horton has taken the Night of Lights to a whole new level.  The past two years, it has been held in the civic building.  There is a free will donation supper, Santa is there for photos, and Christmas movies are playing.  There is usually quite a crowd too.

This year Ollie was not too keen on Santa.

Last year was much more successful than this year was.

The Santa photos were the only pictures that I took this year at the Night of Lights.  That must have been because we were too busy winning prizes!! Haha!  Everybody that attends gets entered into drawings for prizes and let's just say that we made out pretty well.  Jim, Marcia, Derrick, Heidi, Carter, Tyson, Riley ,and Oliver were all called for prizes.  Oliver got a wooden puzzle and Riley got a gift card to the western store in town.  Tyson was getting discouraged because they weren't calling his name, but he did end up winning a bike towards the very end!

Once they were finished with all the prizes they thanked everybody and announced that they decided to give away one big grand prize.  It was $500 towards the purchase of a Traeger grill.  And whose name do you supposed they called? -- MINE!  :)

Christmas Present for Riley - Check! 

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving this year was nothing out of the ordinary.  I typically forget to take pictures because I'm too busy eating or sleeping, but I did a bit better this year.

Ollie bellied up to the bar with Papa.

 

 

 

 

Oliver's new thing is to take pictures with our phones.  Mostly we have a camera roll full of the ceiling and the top of his head.  He did however, get decent pictures of two of his grandparents. :)

Already learning to take selfies :)

We also celebrated Jim's birthday while we were there!  Lots of celebration and yummy food!