Dan's firm had its annual family Christmas party. The magician was there again and I am so entranced by his magic that I really can't tell how he does some of it. He's a highlight. They also had cups of Chick-fil-a nuggets, which was a huge hit, and lots of cookies. This year went didn't get caricatures done because the line was too long, but we did see Santa.
Afton wrote her own chore list. (And no, we don't spank her!)
Richmond is known for some pretty tacky Christmas lights, so one night we drove to a nearby neighborhood where they go all-out. This video isn't very exciting, it's just showing some of the homes.
We later saw a super amazing house with the synced music and lights, but I didn't get it on camera.
A cousin put up pictures on facebook of her and her roommates in matching Christmas clothes, which reminded me of when I did that with MY roommates FOURTEEN years ago! Anyway, I sent them all the picture and we had a nice laugh. It's funny how you think you're wearing pretty timeless things, but it's definitely dated.
Did you know that brussel sprouts grew like this? I didn't until I saw it at the store.
I thought that Sam and Afton both had pajama day, so I sent them both to school in their PJs. Turns out, only Afton had pajama day! But Sam handled it like a champ, and I'm sure he was the most comfortable kid!
Some of Afton's school work.
Love this one. "I have stamina."
We met Dan for lunch downtown once winter break began. Eli kept pointing to the lobby of the building so Dan took him out there and wouldn't you know it? There was a whole model train village set that was really cool. Eli LOVED it. He loved it so much that he peed through his pants just moments after this picture was taken. All over Dan's pants and shirt.
Afton learned a new song.
For Christmas, we headed over to G&G Cheney's. Mom and Dad were kind enough to watch Afton and Eli while Dan and I took Sam to see Rogue One. We were pretty disappointed with it, but it was fun to go to a movie with Sam.
Here's the shirt Sam got Dan for his birthday.
One night we went and looked at a big Christmas display at a home in Ruckersville. It was pretty awesome! Eli and Afton loved the nativities.
Air hockey is always a huge hit.
Always lots of naps at their house - especially for Dan.
Lots of loot!
This is one of my favorite ornaments that my mom has.
She has a lot of cool ones from their travels.
Somehow, some way, for some reason, we began doing puzzles. I have never been a very big fan of puzzles, but we really cranked them out this Christmas.
This is Dan's sweet Christmas blazer that he will now be obligated to wear each Christmas.
Christmas Eve we tracked Santa on the radar, then watched a few church videos about the birth of Jesus. Then we sang pretty much every Christmas hymn in the hymnbook, and a few the kids like, too.
Christmas was on a Sunday, so we had all the kids ready in their church clothes when they came down to look at their stockings.
Stocking time! We got Eli a train set and that was a big hit.
The other kids really liked their Pokemon cards. They (Sam, mostly) had been BEGGING for some for months.
We had time for Christmas chunky bread and cereal before heading out to Sacrament meeting. It was nice to go to church on Christmas. Then we came back home to open presents. We were majorly spoiled.
Sam promptly tried to set up his new hot wheels track, but we couldn't get it to work.
We eventually exchanged it, and we couldn't get that one to work, either. So he picked out something else in the end...
Here's the 500-piece puzzle the adults did for "fun" one night.
We spent most of the next day visiting, then we headed home. But not before Dan went to Walmart bright and early the day after Christmas to snag a bunch of Christmas lights 50% off. He thinks that he basically doubled our display. We shall see next December!
We bid farewell to all of our lovely Christmas cards.
And let's just get a close-up of Afton's reindeer. She is so creative.
We went back to my parents' house December 30. Mom and I went to an antique store and spotted a lot of hidden gems like this Michael Jackson painting,
(it was up so high I couldn't get a decent picture!) and this amazing 6-foot hot dog statue. You KNOW I wanted to take that home with me! (And for those who are familiar with my parents' area, this hot dog used to stand outside of the grocery store where I worked as a teenager, but not until after I had left.)
I was sad to leave that guy behind.
We spent the night so we could hike in Shenandoah early the next day. It was SUPER cold. We did two hikes: Bearfence and Hazeltop. Hazeltop didn't really have a view, nor did it have an "end" - it was just part of the Appalachian Trail and the third highest peak in the park, so we figured since we'd done one and two, we might as well do three. Bearfence had a great view, but it was too cold to enjoy it for very long.
Eli was in the backpack and kept saying "stuck!" He fell asleep during Hazeltop.
And we hit up a Burger King for lunch.
It was a great way to spend New Year's Eve. We got home in the afternoon and relaxed the rest of the day.
Dan turned the big 3-5 in December. His birthday was on a Tuesday, which made it a little tricky to celebrate, but he requested tacos for dinner and cupcakes for dessert. For his birthday/Christmas gift, he got a new climbing rope and some things that go with it for rock climbing, but I can't remember what they're called.
(Afton is too good at the crossed eyes! I love how she's so serious about it so you can't tell if she really does have crossed eyes or if she's just doing it for the picture.)
Oh, man, I am so grateful to have Dan in my life! He is my best friend and I love him so much. He is a great father. He works so hard for us. He sets goals and gets them done. He makes me laugh. He loves his family. He loves Christmas. He's handy around the house. He is kind. He is AWESOME! We love you, Dan! Happy birthday!
Dan's boss was out of town the week of Thanksgiving so he offered us his UVA basketball tickets. We had a fun time, despite getting there super late. And UVA stomped the other team into the ground so hard that you felt sorry for them. Eli was in awe the whole time. Or he was just perplexed. It was noisy in there.
The next day we played at Grandma and Grandpa's house while Dan worked. Thursday was Thanksgiving. Dad decided to try deep-frying the turkey. That was quite exciting and scary. You can hear that oil sizzling like crazy.
It was delicious.
Yes, I wore my festive harvest sweater for the occasion. We took a nice walk after dinner and then, at night, Dan continued his tradition of Thanksgiving night shopping at Walmart. It was pretty peaceful this year - not too crazy. We hit it up on our way to Old Rag. Mom and Dad kindly watched our kids so we could do this hike.
As I said, we left at night and got to the parking area around 9. There was only one other car in the huge parking lot. We started hiking and went until almost midnight. We saw a skunk, a little owl, and lots of crickets. We got as far as we could before coming to the "Backcountry camping prohibited beyond this point" sign. We picked a spot and slept in our sleeping bags under the stars (no tent). I'd never done that before. It was cold. We both have mummy bags, so it was mostly just my face that was cold. If I'm going to do that again, I need to get a ski mask.
We wanted to be there for the sunrise, so we woke up around 5 and saw some lights of others on the trail in the distance. We packed up and started again. It was hard in the dark because right at that point is where the boulders start. We quickly caught up to the people with the lights - turns out it was two teenage marines who were using their cell phones to light the way and could no longer find the trail. So we stayed with them and led them through to the top. We didn't end up seeing the sunrise because it was cloudy. And more clouds quickly rolled in. But it was pretty (and COLD!) while it lasted.
I took this picture of the people on the rock across from us.
So then she took one of us.
Pretty cool! The hike down was a lot easier and it started to warm up.
My attempt at a long-exposure shot.
We started seeing TONS of people hiking and when we got back to the parking lot, it, and the other overflow parking lot, were totally crazy. There were at least 100 other cars there, so I'm glad we did things like we did! We had the top pretty much to ourselves (just two other groups) so we had a great view and then we got home early enough to do some other things.
We went with my mom to the Green Valley book fair which was great for children's books. Then we celebrated Dan's birthday with my parents, who wouldn't be able to come on his actual day.
We had a really nice Thanksgiving break.
Our TV picture was messed up so Dan researched it and tried to fix the TV on his own. Didn't work. Broke the TV. Bought a new one on Saturday to get the Black Friday deals. Now the old one is sitting in our living room...
