Christmas Eve and Day.

On Christmas Eve, we headed to the Waldon house to celebrate with that side of the family.  Then on Christmas morning, we went to the Brooks house to celebrate with them.  And on Christmas afternoon, everyone came over to our house for a big meal with both sides of the family.  It was a very balanced holiday!  :)

Here are a few pics from those two days!

Christmas-y stuff.

We had tons of fun in December doing all sorts of Christmas activities!  Clara performed in her first Christmas piano recital.  We played a duet and I was the only one to make a mistake.  Darn!

Clara and Grandma Janet had fun at Clara's class party!

We had our annual mother/daughter brunch with my girlfriends!  It is the best time!  Jessica hosted this year in her new house, and it was a belly-laugh kind of time!

Big and little pups enjoying the holidays!

I did lots of holiday baking, but this year I waited until the last minute!  But I got everything baked in time to deliver neighbor cookie plates on Christmas Eve!

We visited Santa at the Village with cousin Ava!  We got some great photos!

We went on a drive to see Christmas lights with the boys and Teenie and Oma!

And on Christmas Eve, it snowed!

We also had the Brooks family dinner at Fork hosted by Uncle Arlen, which we always enjoy so much.  And Kurtis and I had fun at his work Christmas party the weekend before the holiday.  I know I'm forgetting some events, but these are the pics I could round up!  It was a great December!

Catching a Christmas Tree.

We drove up to Idaho city the first weekend in December to cut a tree down with Oma and Opa.  We took new little Lulu, too!  We wandered around the woods for a bit in falling snow, and found the perfect tree!  I love the sparse look of mountain trees!

Right after this picture, Fritzie took off running, and this pic is Oma and Opa's reactions!

And here's the tree all decked out in the house!

Thanksgiving 2015.

We celebrated Thanksgiving with both sides of the family at our new house!  It was potluck style, of course, because I could never handle the whole meal on my own!

Clara made names to set at each place setting.

Kurtis listened to music and cleaned the house.

And I worked a little in the kitchen and really enjoyed the day!

Lucy enjoyed all the company and snuggles.

Kurtis Traegered his first turkey and it turned out so delicious!  You can see from the pic that Brian was skeptical, and my Dad thought Kurtis needed some tips to for carving his first turkey!

The kid table with some cute kids!

Everyone else fit in the dining room!  It was a blast to be all together!

It was seriously a fabulous day!  We had so much fun.  Teenie, my Mom, Janet, and I all helped fix the side dishes to accompany the turkey, so the work load wasn't too bad!  We enjoyed the meal, and then dessert, and then we played games into the night!  Plus, we were so lucky to have both sides of our family together so we didn't have to split our time between two houses on the holiday!  It minimized stress, for sure!  It reminded me that we sure have a lot to be thankful for!