Christmas Catch Up

So I haven't taken the chance to write about our Christmas holidays. This was my first Christmas without travelling in 5 years and my first Christmas not in Ohio since 1998! Crazy! The majority of the holiday we spent with Ryan's family since this is their first Christmas being back from Australia and we had the whole family together. Ry's sister and her family came down from Utah and stayed the week and the rest of us were in the area. Here are some pictures from the activity that Ry and I headed up for some of the kids. Ryan had the awesome idea to do gingerbread houses so we did them out of graham crackers and had a hey day. Here's the spread. Christmas Eve we went to Uncle Joe and Aunt Steph's house for the Nativty recreation by the kids and then a little musical program. So much fun! It's so fun to be adopted into the Elmer clan and enjoy all the festivities and family. That night we stayed over at my in laws and had Christmas morning with the kids. Ethan got a junior set of golf clubs from us and once we saw how good he was with them, we decided that it would have to be an "outdoor toy." Grandma gave him is first basketball hoop that starts out small (3 feet) and can go all the way up to 6 or 7 feet. He loves it already and he can bearly make a basket. Nana K got him the Little People garage and a set of Mega Blocks that he plays with like a maniac. He is so funny these days. Uncle Aaron got him this awesome Texas Longhorns warm up suit with a Texas t-shirt that he looks like such a stud in. Anyway...we had a wonderful time with everyone and Ethan loved playing with his cousins. They are so sweet to him and I love to watch them look out for him and take care of him. It's so cute! It's also so nice to have my parents in the area too so I could spend time with them on Christmas Eve and then I came down to my parents later on Christmas mornign so I could be around for my brother's phonecall from the mission. He's doing so good and has already been out 7 months! Wow! Time flies! So Christmas turned out better than I thought and everyone was so generous to us with gifts and time so I want to tell all of them thank you and we love you!