We had such a wonderful Christmas this year! We spent the weekend in Baker City with my family.
Building a gingerbread house was an essential activity. It took some convincing to keep Sarah from eating all of the candy before it got on to the house.
She caught on quickly and had lots of fun placing the candies.
The next day, she got to eat it. Yummy!
We brought a whole new meaning to "white Christmas" this year. There was no question as to whether we would have snow. Lots and lots of snow. On Christmas Eve, we went out to soak up some holiday spirit around the community.
We left Sarah and Nelson at the library for a Daddy-daughter date while Aunt Katy and I went out for lunch together. They had fun making sharks and fish.
We strolled down Main Street and enjoyed the holiday spirit. At some point, Sarah's boots fell off while she was riding on Kelson's shoulders. Shortly after that, she fell fast asleep right on top of Daddy's head while we were in the book store. Christmas is exhausting.
As is tradition, we had lasagna for Christmas Eve dinner and ate off of fancy china. Sarah was pretty excited to get her own fancy cup.
Our adorable family on Christmas Eve
All ready to go to bed so Santa could come!
You may remember that Sarah was not a big fan of Santa the couple of times that they met. It took us about 10 minutes to convince her that it was okay to come down on Christmas morning because Santa had already left.
Opening stockings with Grandma and Grandpa
Chris got tools in his stocking. Every Hindman man needs his own set of tools.
Santa left so many things for us under the Christmas tree!
I wouldn't say this child is spoiled at all. (Some of those are Grandma's toys that were just sitting in the playroom. We didn't completely lose control.)
Since Christmas was on Sunday this year, we all got to dress up in our finest and go to church to remember the Savior on Christmas day.
Sarah's dress was a gift from Nana Bonnie. So pretty!
Chris is thinking, "You really think she is ready to hold me?"
After church, Sarah got to open her big gift from Grandma and Grandpa: a stick horse and a cowgirl hat. It was a big hit. However, she was confused as to why we were calling her a cowgirl. She said, "I'm not a cowgirl. I'm a horse girl." Makes sense to me.
Soon, the laundry basket became a carriage and Daddy was racing Sarah all over the room.
Santa's gift to Sarah was a vintage Little People farm. I've heard that Santa has a good stash of vintage gifts.
Christmas dinner, complete with paper hats from our poppers.
We spent the evening playing games and drinking some delicious Italian sodas.
Jeremy's family was in Seattle for Christmas, so we all got together a few days later for a little more Christmas fun. I finally made it to "the Grinch house" with Sarah. This man in Baker City has been decorating his house and yard with painted cartoon cutouts for decades. He used to put the Grinch on his roof, so that is what we called it as kids. It is really amazing. Sarah was excited to see Pooh, Clifford, and all of the princesses.
For all of our nieces and nephews this year I made mermaid tails and shark tails, Will was a big fan.
I also gave Sarah and Anne doll-size tails to match theirs. Sarah thought the little one was more fun.
A happy Grandma.
We celebrated New Year's Eve at home with steak, scallop alfredo pasta, and shrimp salad. Yum!
For the special occasion, I actually let Kelson get out the deep fryer. (That doesn't happen very often). For breakfast on New Year's day, we made cheery cheesecake egg rolls. Yum!
This was Sarah's face when we told her that Christmas was over and it was time to take down the decorations. She was so sad. It really was a magical season. 2016 was a great year for our family, full of exciting, unexpected changes and blessings. We are looking forward to 2017!
