Christmas 2010 - Part 1 (Finally!)

Christmas morning had finally arrived! The kids were so excited, it was all we could do to wake up and get downstairs with the camera before they came down. Did Santa come? Sure enough!

Look what Santa brought! He even got Sadie's doll to show off the luggage he got for her. And he must have let the reindeer in, cuz they tore the bag of reindeer chow to pieces!

Stockings!

Tim and Mom. I think they had fun watching three crazy, excited kids on Christmas morning.

Pretty ornament from Grandma

Helping Daddy open his new Ducks flag for the car

For my mom, I made a really awesome book chronicling our August trip to Cali for Sadie's 10th birthday

Zack got Drew his very first set of his OWN Legos. Drew was so happy!

See? :)

And there were more presents...

"Betsey, I would have preferred if the cookies in this tin went up to about here..."

No we didn't forget Kahz! The kids and I got him a really awesome toy.

Huh. It must have been too awesome!

Christmas Eve

This year, we invited my mom and brother, Tim, to come spend Christmas with us. This was our first Christmas without Dad and I think doing something different was very good for everyone. Christmas Eve we went to the candlelight service at church and then met the family at Chevy's for our annual Tex-Mex Christmas Eve dinner. Weird, I know, but we all love it!

Silly Grandma and Silly Drew!

Auntie Chrissie and Sadie

Uncle Aaron and Auntie Chrissie

Tony and Zack

Zack and Uncle Tim

The far end of the table!

Drew's spectacular dough/crayon creation!

After dinner we headed home and the kids got to open a gift. They chose the gifts from Tony's grandma, Nanni. She got them these super cute fleece items!

Mom opened the gift from her sister, my Aunt Jeanie. It was darling pj's!

Then it was time to put out the milk and cookies for Santa and the reindeer chow and carrots. The kids were soooo excited!

Did Santa come? We shall see....

Christmas Cookies!

We made lots of cookies during the holidays, but the kids' favorite are definitely frosted sugar cookies! First we made them in fun shapes and the a few days later came the frosting and sprinkles!!

The BIG Win!!

Tony's work Christmas party is pretty fun. There is always delicious food, good friends, and of course, the raffle. Now, every year we buy 5 tickets for $20, and every year we win NOTHING. Which is totally fine, but wouldn't it be cool to just win something? Tony is always hopeful that we will win the big prize, which is always some really cool flatscreen tv. We have been wanting a new tv for a very long time, but it just isn't in the budget, you know?

So this year we went to the party (which was at the Embassy Suites in Tigard) and as usual, bought 5 raffle tickets for $20. They started doing the prizes, and lo and behold, we won a night in a newly renovated suite at the Embassy Suites! We were super excited that we finally won something! The next prize raffled off was a Sunriver trip. That would have been cool, but we were happy with our win. The last prize was the tv. A 50 inch LG flat screen tv. The officer doing the drawing drew out a name and promptly asked everyone if they thought that someone who already won something could win the tv. After a bit of a fiasco and lots of yelling, he announced that the name on the ticket was.... BASTINELLI!! WAHOOOOO!! We could not even believe that we had actually won the tv!

After church the next day, Tony and his friends, Mike and Aaron, went to the police station to pick up the tv and came home to set it up. Here is our old, pathetic tv.

How many guys does it take to put up and 50 inch tv, anyway?

And there she is! We are thrilled to have won something so great and will enjoy this tv for years to come!

Holiday Hayride

Our neighborhood is awesome. Every year right before Christmas, there is a Christmas party at the little schoolhouse down the street that includes, Santa, lots of cookies and hot chocolate, a kids' craft, and a horse-drawn "hay"ride! (There usually isn't really hay, just a carriage pulled by gorgeous draft horses). It is definitely something we look forward to every year!

SANTA

Singing Christmas songs while we ride!

Our friends/neighbors, the Retzlaffs

Mom and Boy

Kids and horses

Christmas Card 2010

Here is our Christmas card for this year. I was going to do a card with just the picture of our whole family, but Tony liked this one better. I really like it too!

Sadie's Theater Debut

Sadie has had an affinity for the dramatic arts since the day she was born, I think. She is loud, expressive, and we have always known that acting would be something she would do well at. She finally got the chance to try out acting when I signed her up for a theater class through the Hillsboro Parks and Rec Department. We have a beautiful Cultural Arts Center that is only 5 minutes from where we live, and this is where her class was. It was a 6 week class with them kids performing the play the last day for family and friends. It was called "The Treasure of Sierra's Padre" and was a bilingual play with both English and Spanish. Sadie played Sierra, and she did an awesome job and really loved it!

Here are a few posters that Sadie's teacher made. The picture on the top right board was actually in the Hillsboro newspaper a couple of weeks ago!

Sadie as Sierra:

We are so blessed to have many supportive people in our lives. Sadie had 11 fans at the play!

Sadie's teacher, Mrs. Danley, came to watch.

Her best friend, Lizzie, did too!

Papa David and Grandma Marie even brought her flowers!

We are so very proud of Sadie and her wonderful acting abilities and the all work that she put into her play!