From Picking out a Tree to the New Year

OK.  Here we go, closing out 2016.  There are lots of new things for our family.  Once again, it has been over a month since I added more adventures of our family.  After our Thanksgiving, the month of December flew by.  We picked out our Christmas tree as a family right away.  We had  holiday parties, saw Santa, went to Mizzou events, and even got to ice skate on our driveway.  Gracie and Owen get so excited whenever there is winter weather, and spend as much time as possible playing outside in it, even when it is really cold.  We had many Christmas celebrations including our new Mizzou family, a trip to see my parents, and two trips up to Iowa to see family.  We also closed on our land and will begin building as soon as possible in 2017.  Here is the past month in review.  Another holiday season has come and gone with lots of activities to share.  There is quite a bit here; sorry for such a long post.

We had a Christmas tree this year!  Last year, we were in the middle of moving, so decided against one more thing to try to clean up before getting everything out of the house.  This year, we found a tree farm just north of Columbia so we could cut a tree down, as we have done for many years.  It was a beautiful day, with temperatures in the mid 40's.  Very strange compared to many years when we have been trudging around in snow and freezing.

Here it is all decorated.

Mizzou volleyball did very well this year, and we hosted the 1st and 2nd rounds of NCAA championships.  Ironically, ISU also made it and came to Mizzou to compete.  We didn't end up playing ISU, but Owen found Cy!  He was so excited, but I'm sure Cy was confused with a Tiger fan coming to see him with such enthusiasm.  It was fun watching volleyball action this year, with Mizzou doing so well.  I think Gracie knows all of the players' names.

Owen lost another tooth!  Since then, he has also lost another on the bottom.

Santa!  The kids visited Santa again this year.  Owen remembered to tell hi what he wanted this time.

Holiday Parties


Annie brought River up for the Mizzou holiday kids party!


They also got to play on gymnastics equipment for awhile.  So much fun!

Snow!

Even if it was only a little snow, and it was gone by afternoon, the kids played in it as long as it was here.  It wasn't even supposed to snow, but we had about an inch.  They made a bit snow ball and ran around in it for at least a couple hours.

Then ICE!

About a week later, we had a lot of ice, then a blast of cold.  The ice caused a lot of problems for travel throughout Columbia.  I was so lucky to be stuck in it for about 4.5 hours.  The kids were home late from school because they had to hold the buses.  Luckily, our neighbor was home and they went to her house while I struggled in traffic.  It was horrible.  However, the kids had a blast playing outside the following day on all the ice.  They pulled each other down the driveway on their sled and we found the ice skates so they could practice their skating skills.  They played for hours and Owen about cried when Nick threatened to salt the driveway.  

It wouldn't be right without hot chocolate.

Would you like some hot chocolate with your marshmallows?

The ice issues happened on a Friday, then we had a day of playing on Saturday.  We were hit with a blast of cold that night and into Sunday.  All of the churches canceled, and school was even canceled on Monday.  The kids were so bummed because their holiday parties were scheduled for that day, but they got to celebrate on Tuesday instead.  I was in charge of Gracie's classroom this time and we planned our day of reindeer toss, the stocking game, and decorating holiday cards for families.  It was fun and I think her friends enjoyed the day.  

On our day off from school, the kids made their dad a Christmas present.  His favorite!

We celebrated Christmas with my parents and sister on December 22.  We drove down to the Lake for the day.  It was nice enough to play outside a little bit.  I went earlier than Nick and spent some time with my mom and Annie left work a little early to bring River over to play.  It was a good dinner and fun for the kids to open presents together from Grandma and Grandpa.

Nick is trying to convince River that the cheesecake is ok to eat.

Chad and Owen waiting to open presents

River gets to open his present!

This was the best we could get with Grandma and Grandpa.

The kids opening gifts. Notice Nick assuming his position.

The Magic Tree

The next night we all went to see the "Magic Tree" on the other side of town.  It was pretty incredible.  I think I read somewhere that it is decorated with 40,000 lights.

Christmas Eve

We celebrated Christmas Eve by going to the church service just down the road and then hosting dinner for our neighbors.  It was very strange not being with more family, but I'm glad we could spend the evening with friends.  Nick grilled steaks and we had a full dinner with all the sides.  It was a great evening and luckily, the kids had their annual viewing of "The Polar Express" the night before.  It was almost 10pm by the time our neighbors left.  We had a really great evening!

Gracie and Owen by the tree.

Our family

Owen in his new hoodie

What am I going to do with this girl?!  She is growing up way too fast!  She actually wanted her hair dried and curled for the evening.  So...about 45 minutes later this is what happened.  She cleans up well, even if it doesn't happen very often.

As we have done for the past few years, we allowed the kids to open their gifts from us on Christmas Eve.  They seem to enjoy this a lot and still have Santa to look forward to on Christmas Day.

Gracie's face when she realized that Nick put Indee (our Appaloosa) in her name.

Owen sitting next to his gifts

Finally!  They fell asleep shortly after 10pm.

I kind of forgot to take pictures on Christmas morning.  Of course, they enjoyed waking up to full stockings and  new toys to play with.  However, unlike previous years, we had to travel up to Iowa to spend Christmas with the rest of the Blyth family.  So, we packed up and left by 10am and headed north.  We spent Christmas Day with all of our family on the Blyth side.  It was so great to see everyone!  We appreciate my aunt and uncle allowing us to stay with them!

Here we are!  Small but mighty!  There is actually one more since this picture was taken.  My cousin Ali had her new baby about 6 hours later!  Clara Blyth 

When we returned to Missouri, we took a day to close on our land before leaving again to go back to Iowa.  The closing day was a bit stressful and I'm so glad that it's done.  The day after, we went out to the land and Nick took the mower and 4-wheeler to try to plot out where things might go when we start to build.  So much is going to happen in the next 6 months!

Britton/Merrill Christmas

Here we are, but this is just siblings (and not even all of them!)  Can you imagine the picture with all of Nick's cousins and their families?!

Just two days later, we headed back north again and spent 2 days at the DuRocher residence with all of our family.  Deb, Norm, Tony, and Amber flew in from Florida and celebrated Christmas and the dedication of Sawyer.  We opened gifts, ate lots of food, and enjoyed the company of family while there.  Here are just a few pictures to illustrate our activities.

You wonder where our kids get it from.

I hope this is a happy Gramma!  Love this picture!

The girls choreographed a dance!

This is most of the grandkids/cousins.  Sawyer's parents decided that sleep was more important.

Gramma Deb looking on

Competitive "Pie Face"

This was hilarious to watch.  The only problem with my kids is that they love eating whipped topping.  Owen prepared with his mouth wide open.

Nick even took a turn

This is how it ended.

My favorite.  Listening to Deb play for the kids while they sing Christmas songs.  Thank you for entertaining!  This makes up for not having a Christmas/holiday program to go to this year for Gracie and Owen.

  

Gracie sure loves taking care of the babies!

We came back home on Friday night and spent New Year's Eve day taking down all of our Christmas decorations and making our house functional again.  We had no big plans for New Year's Eve and ended up watching movies.  I think Gracie was the only one who made it to midnight!  She got to see the ball drop in NYC, but insisted on staying up until midnight in the Midwest.  I told her to wake me up at midnight so I could celebrate with her, which she did.  Both Nick and Owen had fallen asleep long before that.

The past year has been interesting to say the least.  I'm looking forward to what 2017 has in store.