Christmas, New Years & Such

The 2nd round of celebrations began the Friday after Christmas with a big birthday party for my now 6yo cousin who is 6 just months older than Abby & Ellie. The party was held at PE 101 and it turned out awesome. The kids had a blast! The instructor was incredible! Carie and I were amazed at the changes we saw in Spencer. He totally participated in the party, beginning to end. He stuck with the big kids, followed directions, and had a great time. He's growing up!

Here's Abby (green) & Ellie (pink) with cousins (my cousins, their 2nd cousins?). These are 4 of the 6 girls born within 6 months of each other. Oldest (and birthday girl) on the left. Youngest (6 weeks younger than A&E) on the right.

Saturday morning we headed over to my Aunt's house for the big Siebe Christmas. As we walked in I could smell this toasty smell. I immediately thought of campfires and roasted marshmallows. But wait! It was freezing cold outside, it couldn't be. Turns out they had just discovered the marshmallows that had caught on fire in the oven. Then someone was brilliant and (accidentally I’m sure) turned on the burner. The burner to my Aunt's flat top - counter top stove - that was being used as part of the buffet line - specifically where the plastic bag of buns were sitting. Oh yeah, charred black buns! Knobs were removed from the stove. Moving on! It must have been a year for kitchen mishaps. I know we experienced one, albeit minor. I've read of other mishaps. Carie's sister somehow caught a hot pad on fire. Then the experience at my Aunt's house.

The rest of the day was (mostly) lovely, with a few individuals and experiences we can live without. But all in all it was a wonderful day. After a full afternoon of gift opening - the kid round, the adult round, the other weird game Grandma insists on playing, etc... It was time for dinner. We ended up hanging out well into the night playing games and having a good time. Spencer easily fell asleep around his normal bedtime and the girls played with the cousins. We finally made it home around midnight, tired and ready to crash. But wait! What do we need to do for tomorrow?

Sunday we were hosting Christmas for Carie's family. It was going to be a relatively small gathering, but preparations still needed to be made. Around the noon hour her siblings and families arrived and I returned home from picking up Alex from my Aunt's house. We put the finishing touches on our meal and enjoyed a delicious turkey dinner. Shortly after the little one's were ushered off to their naps and the rest of us hung out, talked, played some cards, etc... After a successful nap by Spencer and a questionable nap by Arwen, we proceeded with a gift exchange and flying paper everywhere. We also waited to open the gifts sent by Carie's parents until this day. We were quite surprised to find out that what they gifted each of our families with was the same gift Carie and I had sent to them, only their version was nicer. We then pulled together and enjoyed a delicious traditional leftover turkey sandwich dinner. After we got Spencer off to bed the younger kids hung out, played, watched movies while the adults continued the forever long card game started earlier in the day. I'm happy to report that I won. ;)

Monday, New Years Eve Day, I took the day off and we had a family day. We ended up going to Thunder Alley for our first family bowling adventure followed by go kart rides and some arcade games.

That evening we made a special dinner of appetizers followed by chocolate fondue for a special treat.

The girls really dug the idea of dipping things into the pot of chocolate.

Spencer wasn't so sure at all and decided that he preferred to eat his strawberries, bananas, and marshmallows un-dipped, thank you very much.

Everyone else was covered in chocolate.

Once they were all fast asleep Carie and I enjoyed the quietness of the house!

Tuesday, New Years Day, was another family day. We started off the day slow and ended it with a bang with a trip to The Pizza Machine. The kids have been asking about going and they know that it is a special trip for us. We decided that going over the Christmas break would be a perfect time to go. I took the girls (Abby, Ellie & Alex) in the afternoon while Spencer was napping and then Carie and Spencer joined us after his nap. The girls' played miniature golf for the first time and had a great time. They rode the frog hopper, wild ride, bumper cars, and go karts several times (thank goodness for the hour ride pass left from our previous visit). We played spaghetti bowling at Spencer's request and then took a break for dinner. After dinner all the kids got their own game cards and they thought they were pretty hot stuff playing games with their own cards. Once they were out of points, they knew they were done. Alex blew through her points pretty quickly. Abby & Ellie were monitoring theirs pretty closely and offered to share their points with Alex so she could ride the frog hopper one last time before we left. Spencer took up residence in front of the basketball machine and the air hockey table and was happy as ever

Wednesday was back to work for me! The business continued at home with the girls' have a play and lunch date. They had an awesome time at Katie's house and as a bonus surprise their friend Evan was there.

Thursday is another crazy day! They went to the Children's Museum this morning and the girls have another play date this afternoon.

Friday is another potential play date day. Friday afternoon Alex will head home and we'll return to a family of 5. I'm thinking (hoping) that the weekend is unscheduled. Though I know we should begin the process of taking down the Christmas decorations. For now I'll think relaxing thoughts for the weekend in hopes that it becomes a reality.