Christmas in Sisters

Ryan and Michelle invited us all out to Sisters for Christmas this year. We drove over on Christmas Eve morning.  We had a sickness scare and some family drama, as two of the cousins were sick that week, and we debated for a bit about what to do when we found out. We decided to go anyway, and we are glad we did. We had some great family time, and God was merciful and kept everyone else well the whole time. Thank you, Lord! Our kids were so happy to be with their cousins. Ryan and Michelle's next door neighbors were out of town and gave us the use of their house while we were there. It was the perfect set-up, with two houses for 21 Moffats. We went to the Christmas Eve service at their church that night. The kids woke up bright and early Christmas morning, and we had a great day together.

That evening we drove into Redmond to go ice skating. It was so much fun (and I didn't even skate)! Our kids had never been ice skating before, and they were so excited to try it. It was downright magical--ice skating on Christmas day, cold crisp air, and Christmas music playing. Ryan timed it so it was light out when they were all getting geared up and figuring out how to move on the ice, and then the sun went down, and they got to skate under the twinkling lights.

Grant clung to the side the whole time but loved it. Joel started figuring it out by the end. Kari looked like a pro, and Aubrey shuffled her way around the rink. They were awfully cute!

The next day we had a low-key morning and then drove into Bend to a bounce/play place for the kids to expend some energy. Michelle, Leah, and I did a little shopping while they were bouncing and everyone else sat and watched them.

 

Everyone but our family left on Saturday, and Ryan took us to see a fish hatchery and the head of the Metolius River. It's pretty crazy to see the start of a river flowing out from under a hill.

 

 

Later in the day, we left all the kids at the house for Kari and Ashlynn to babysit, and Ryan and Michelle and Greg and I took an oh-so-exciting trip to the local Bi-Mart to check out the after Christmas sales and then walked around downtown Sisters for a while. It was great to get out for a bit, just the four of us. Kari turned eleven just a few weeks ago, and we're loving the babysitting benefits! ;-)

 

We went to church Sunday morning at Ryan and Michelle's church. We like their church. It's a good place with good people. While we were sitting there, it started snowing like crazy outside, and we watched through the big windows as snow piled up, a day too late! The kids wanted so badly for it to snow while we were there, and then the day we were leaving, it snowed. AHHH! We took off right after church. This is what Ryan and Michelle's neighborhood looked like as we were driving away.  

 

 



 Our drive ended up being more eventful than we had anticipated. It took us seven and a half hours to get home. It's normally a three hour drive!  The snow storm on the mountain threw a big hitch in our travel plan. We had to put chains on here.

 

 

Chains, broken chains, bad road conditions, lots of traffic, stuck in traffic on the top of the mountain for an hour, kids needing to use the restroom, eventually turning around and going back down the mountain through Hood River, kids turning the snow yellow on the side of the road, Aubrey wailing for a solid 30 minutes about her ear hurting, stopping at Rite Aid in Hood River for some children's ibuprofen for Aubs, driving home from Hood River in a rainstorm. It was quite the trip! We were so glad to be home. Wowzers. It was all worth it, though. It was a great Moffat Christmas.

Christmas on the 23rd

Greg took an extra day off before Christmas so we could have our own little family Christmas on Dec. 23rd. We pretended it was Christmas morning--did stockings, had a special breakfast, opened presents. We had a really nice day together. It was pretty handy, too, that it wasn't actually Christmas day. I took Aubrey to the store that very day to exchange some clothes we'd given her that were too small. Can't do that on Christmas! :) We took our tree down and put away all the decorations because we knew we wouldn't want to do it when we got back from Sisters after Christmas. It was nice to get our house cleaned up and stuff put away. And the fun wasn't even over! We still had Moffat Christmas ahead of us.

Spy glasses from their stockings. They can see what's behind them--pretty cool.

Cheater Gingerbread

I made the kids sad when I  told them I wasn't going to make gingerbread houses this year. I just didn't have it in me after all the other December festivities and Kari's birthday parties. The kids were disappointed but took it ok. I was at the grocery store the week before Christmas, though, when I saw a ready-made kit with five tiny houses in it for $8. I decided it was worth it and made my kids' day. It was the perfect afternoon activity for the first day of Christmas vacation. They were happy and occupied, and it had taken minimal effort and energy on my part to make it happen. Win-win, for this year anyway!

 

Christmas Sunday

 

I requested a family photo in front of the tree before church, and the family was not exactly cooperative. This is a better depiction of what that morning was really like and what the kids really wanted to do.

Arnold Christmas

We all gathered the weekend before Christmas, since we were going to be gone in Sisters this year. We had dinner together and did birthday cake for Jesus.

This year here are the things the kids said they were thankful for:
Joel-- People fighting for our freedom
Aubrey--God sending Jesus
Kari--A warm house to live in
Grant--That God made him

 

Aubrey had my camera for a while, and I thought her subject choices were pretty funny. I especially like that she took a photo of Grandma's washer and dryer. :) A couple days before, when I was volunteering at the kids' school, I saw this writing piece by Aubrey. I guess she was practicing for her future career.

 

Translation: "I think photographers have the best job. Photographers get to take pictures. Photographers get to work on computers. They can make people smile! I feel like being a photographer is the best job."

 

More Kari B-day

We did chocolate fondue again on Kari's actual birthday (a Wednesday) and invited family over to celebrate with us.




Aubrey helping melt some chocolate

Angel food cake was her "cake" this year--good for dipping in chocolate

 

Greg dressed up for Kari's birthday. Actually, he had a big, important meeting at work, for which we had to go buy him a suit, and it happened to be on her birthday. :) After 11 years of being a "professional," it was probably about time he had his own professional clothes.

 

Kari's birthday breakfast date with Grandpa. He brought her a dozen roses. I enjoyed them, too. :)

Grant's Christmas program

Grant had his first preschool Christmas music program, and he was SO excited. He had a large crowd of family and grandparents there to watch him. We discovered that he is a nervous nose-picker. Aubrey flipped her hair when she was nervous in programs like that, and Grant picks his nose. Awesome. He was a pretty cute nose-picker, though, and he did know the songs. He sang and smiled and did the motions. He seemed to have a good time up there.

I liked this photo I took of Aubrey and Mom waiting for the program to start.

 

Chocolate Birthday

Kari decided right after her last birthday that the next one would be chocolate-themed, and that's what we did. She invited 13 girls over for her chocolate party, and 12 came to celebrate with her (one got sick and couldn't come). It was a smashing success! We played chocolate/candy themed games--name that candy bar (example: a happy nut= Almond Joy), a taste-test version of name that candy bar, and a really fun game where they raced to unwrap a cellophane ball with candies hidden inside. We fed them taco soup for dinner (Kari's request) before we let them at the chocolate fondue and chocolate fountain. Lots and lots of chocolate and lots and lots of sugar! We ended the party with a couple rounds of Catch Phrase and charades. Greg stepped up and owned the party games. He's a great guy to have around for a party. :) My friend, Christine, stayed and helped us, too, which was so nice! I had asked her to help and then decided maybe we could do it without her, but she stayed anyway, and things went smoother because of her. Thirteen girls (plus our other three kids) is a lot to handle! They all seemed to have a lot of fun. We put on a pretty good party, if I do say so myself. ;-)

Two friends spent the night because their parents were gone overnight, so the fun continued the next morning. The picture of Grant and Aubrey filing Kari's feet while she got her fingernails done cracked me up. They had quite the nail party going on.

Kari has some great friends. All the girls were fun to have here. Friend party is done! Now we just have her real birthday to go. Family will be coming over that night, and we'll do the chocolate fountain and fondue all over again! :)