Our 23rd...

Day two of the festivities was spent with my immediate family at my parents house.

My sister and her niece Riley Renee

My mom and her granddaughters

Below is Allie (my sister in law) and her sister Lauren.  We loved having her be apart of the fun that morning!  Little Riley is wearing and holding the gift Aubrey picked out for her.  :)  

This camera is for sure one of Aubrey's favorite gifts.  A real camera that you can put the pictures on a computer and you can also add custom borders and designs.  She LOVES it!

Matching gloves for the guys!  :)

LOVE this little ham!

Auntie Christy and Uncle Aaron pimped out our boys with matching...

peacoats and hats.  They looked too cute matching!

We made some hooded towels for Jed and Riley.

Aubrey Rose loooooooves her Auntie Christy and Uncle Aaron!

Aaron requested an umbrella he could hold for Christy and not get wet.  Pretty sure you are covered now Aaron!!  :)

Now Oma has matching plasma cars, so the boys won't fight over one.  This made all of us happy!!  :)

We spent the day together playing games, eating yummy food, chatting and catching up and being together.  It was such a great day!

Penner Family Christmas

In the morning we had our gingerbread house competition, then back together in the evening for more festivities with my extended family.  Here are a few pics from our fun memories...

My kids and my niece and nephew...

We started the evening off going Christmas caroling.

We went to Blake's grandparents house first...

and then to some friends from church.

After caroling we took our annual picture of the little cousins.  For a look back to last year check it out here of how we have expanded.

This year we had the kids reenact the story of baby Jesus.  Here is Mary and Joseph with baby Jesus and the BIG, BRIGHT star shining for all to see...  :)  It was too cute!!

And one memory that we will not soon forget...

Blake went home with a chicken from the gift exchange.

That's right.

My cousin brought a real, live chicken for the gift exchange.

Imagine the response when he opened it.

Imagine our thoughts when we were bringing it home.

Yes, a memory we will not soon forget.

We did find a happy home for this sweet, quiet chicken.

Our friends we gave the chicken to were so thankful.

We were too.  :)

Our gingerbread competition

Our Christmas festivities was four straight days of Christmas fun!

Day One...started with a big bang with my extended family.

We had an intense gingerbread house competition at my parents home.  I can tell it needs to be a tradition each year.  We had rules.  Many rules (because we knew our family needed them).  :)  We had a start time and an end time.  Graham crackers and frosting were provided.  Each person brought a specified candy.  Glue guns were used to speed up the process.  You could compete as an individual or a couple or a family.  You could bring ONE tool, decoration, or object to help enhance your house.  

It. Was. Awesome.

It. Was. Intense. 

It was soooooo much fun!

Dave and Arris' finished house

 Here is our log cabin!  :)

Complete with a bench and campfire...

 My brother, his wife and our cousin Becca made their Extreme Gingerbread Makeover.

 My cousins made the manger scene.

And here are all the little cousins in their Christmas pj's...

I have to mention the results because they are worth mentioning.  :)

About 4 hours later when we got back together for dinner, Dave and Arris' house had collapsed...

And the poor angel went to heaven....

Each person got to cast their vote and the winner was...

 Our log cabin!!!

Blake, Chelsey and I won!!

And we won by a LANDSLIDE!!!  Oh yeah!!!

Our prize for winning was we got to be the last steal on our gift exchange.  

Whooooo hooooo!!!

Can't wait for next year!

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas to you all!!  

We hope you have a wonderful day, 

making sweet memories and

spending time with the people you love.

The four of us are planning on spending a little bit of time together at home in the morning, 

then off to the grandparents,

and then great-grandparents,

and finishing the day with our extended Smittcamp family.

Three outfit changes and four homes to go to.

It looks to be a busy day, but each place we will go, we will be together, which is all that matters.

Have a Merry Christmas!!!

Gingerbread houses with Mimi

What a fun tradition to continue year after year!  Mimi came over to make TWO gingerbread houses this year.  Last year Austin was not even one yet, so just Aubrey worked on the house with Mimi.  This year, we had quite the interested little boy as well as a pretty independently working girl.  Thank you Mimi for making all of us smile.  It was such a fun morning!  

 And the sugar high lasted for way too long since this little smart boy figured out how to reach the houses so he could sample ANY time he pleased.  Oh dear!!!  Not good!  He is sneaky and quiet about it too, well with an occasional "Num, NUUUM!!!!"  :)

More Christmas memories...

Things have been busy around here.  Checking off our lists.  Trying to fit in the fun Christmas traditions and all the Christmas parties.  These are some of the every day moments that have happened around here...

We got to enjoy Clovis' Christmas Electric Parade.  We all loved it! 

Oma offered to watch the kids while I ran errands.  Whoo hoo!!  Thanks Mom!

This plasma car is quite the hit at Oma's house.  

 Little missy got to have a special date with Oma.  They got to watch the Nutcracker together!  Aubrey came home practicing her ballet all afternoon.  Thank you Oma!

 We got Aubrey Rose's preschool pictures back and she looked way too old to me!

 We love any time we get to spend with Mimi!!

Austin love, love, loves books, especially when someone will read them to him.  ;) 

Opa is always so patient with his grandkids.

 

Together as a family, we helped Daddy put up the lights on the house IN THE RAIN!!!

Austin decided to stay inside where it was warm and dry.  ;)

Here is Austin at Oma's house helping fix her lights, just like Daddy does.  :)

Such a dark picture (sorry about that), but a fun memory nonetheless.  Each day for the month of December, we have done something fun together as a family.  Everything from building forts and eating dinner in it to watching Christmas movies or writing a card to someone and mailing it them.  Aubrey Rose has LOVED opening up the door each morning to read what we get to do that day as a family.  Fun tradition to continue each year!