Christmas at Mimi's

 We opened the rest of our family gifts Christmas Eve night at my mom's house.  If love was measured by toys - then Ry's Mimi, aunts, and uncles made him the most loved boy ever.  There's always so much activity at Mimi's that I usually forget to take photos...

 

Santa came the next morning - and Ryland was so ready to open his presents he didn't wait for everyone to get up before he started unwrapping.

"I wannnnt dis!"

 Aunt Auti helped him get the packages going - silly Santa must have used too much tape...

 He was very excited about his coloring book - and the over 2,000 stickers (seriously.) that were in his stocking.

 "Whoah!"

Santa knows about someone's car obsession.

 I absolutely hate guns - but I made my husband and future brother-in-law happy by tagging along for "shootin" later in the day.

Such a great holiday with so much family.

Christmas Eve at Pop-Pop's

 G-Pop has been renamed to "pop-pop" by Ryland.  The Ry guy absolutely loves his "pop-pop" and was so excited to go to his house for Christmas eve.  Pop-pop and Nana made lots of yummy food and had some gifts for everyone too.

 When my family gets together, strange photo props always come out too...

 My dad and Lisa

 Callie and David - or Davallie...

 Mimi celebrated with us too!  Ryland is anxiously awaiting his presents here :)

Pop-pop and nana got the Ry a great BIG Muno (along with a bunch of other fun things) - he immediately started kissing it.

Thanks for having us over, Dad! 

"Christmas Morning" at the Allreds

Christmas Eve morning - all the kids slept in till 7:30.  Grandpa had to go to work at the hospital, so we pried them out of bed so they could open presents before he left.

 on their way to find their stockings

 Santa came a day early and left Ry-Ry a fun car!

 a grandma and grandpa got him a rocking chair!

 

here's about half the Allred grandkids - we missed you Sara, Garrett, Alice, and Stella!

 Ry thought Izzy and Ilyssa's Barbie dream house looked pretty fun

We had such a relaxing and great time at Brent's family's house.  Then we packed up and headed down the road to my family's Christmas celebrations.

"Christmas Dinner" at the Allreds

 We had 4 separate Christmas celebrations this year - whew!  We are happy to be home but had a great time in Ephrata with our families.  We spent Wednesday - Friday with Brent's family.  On Friday night, we made Christmas dinner (although it was technically Christmas Eve-Eve).  Brent's mom did a great job of relaxing with her grandkids that evening and let her kids take over the kitchen.  

We made:

 Emerald City Salad

 A pretty table setting

 Prime Rib

 Roasted Root Vegetables

 Cheddar Dill drop biscuits

and yummy lemon sugar cookies

 Brent was master chef and gave his family members who requested their meat "well-done" a really hard time.  

 We couldn't get Ryland out of this car for 3 days, so he ate "drive-in" style

 After dinner we played with all the cousins

Ry got a little jealous of all the attention baby Ilyssa was getting from his mom and dad

 After dinner, grandma and grandpa let the kids open one present - they all got pillow pets!

 Ryland was so excited about his "mcqueen" - his cousin Izzy quickly taught him to say "Ka-Chow!" and we're still hearing that non-stop

Then we sent the kids to bed and played Clue for hours :)

Botanical Garden De-Lights

 My marathon team ran through the Bellevue botanical gardens light display a couple weeks ago - Ryland and Brent enjoyed the display during my run