Thursday, December 26, 2013

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas with our immediate and our extended families.  I can say that we are all very exhausted but looking forward to some family activities and visiting with friends and Koen's birthday.  These pictures were over two days but here are some from our Christmas festivities.  

On Christmas Eve morning, we let the kids open one present each...
Nya got a baby stroller ($4 off the swap site :)
Koen was excited to get Power Ranger Super Samurai
Kai giving Koen a hug for the latest `Diary of a Wimpy Kids' book
We then went to my sister  Maria's house for Christmas Eve.  Here is the table for the `big kids'
and the table for the little kids.  They were so quiet!!
Georgie and Nya had matching dresses that I may have picked up for $2 each :)
Joanne's two daughters, son in law and granddaughter celebrated with us this year!  15 adults and 13 kids.  It was a house full of laughter and chaos.   The kids exchanged names with their cousins for gifts and the adults did a white elephant gift (we did soooo well in that exchange this year!)  Then, after dinner and presents, our family went to our church for the Christmas Eve  service.

Christmas morning and the boys were very excited!  Yes, I put them in the same clothes two days in a row.  Do you know how much laundry I do????
Nya opened her big present; a run bike!
Our boys never had one but I have heard great things about them.  Nya wasn't going to get a present beyond the stroller but then I saw them at Costco this week :) It's a 12" one and she can just touch so hopefully by the spring she will be good to go!
Kai and Koen play Amazing Race all the time so they were excited to get an official Amazing Race mat!

They also got tickets to the Canucks Super Skills competition to go with Gary (and their cousins) in a few weeks.  
Gary's shirt!  We didn't really spend any money on each other since we've had a few expenses this year (our trip, new van, microwave and vacuum!!).  
Then, we packed up and went to Gary's parents to spend the whole day with his whole side of the family.  Again, another house full of 8 adults and 10 kids. Nya got My Little Ponies.
Kai and Koen were excited to get their first Beyblades.  On each side, the kids did a gift exchange with one cousin.
I don't have many pictures of the Chapman family because Gary was taking video on his GoPro (which he has figured out how to sync with his camera which is exciting for him).

We had dinner, the kids went in the hot tub, and then home we came.

Today is just cleaning up and relaxing.  Exhale.

I guess it also involves me riding my stationary bike.  

I hope you had a very Merry Christmas!!

Love, Louise



6 comments:

  1. Run bikes are great! We got Koen a Strider for his second birthday. Within a week I was running to keep up with him. He transitioned to his bike with pedals on his own at 3.5. No training wheels or teaching him how to ride! Makena used to ride his Strider too and we didn't teach her how to ride without training wheels either. She just took her new bike without training wheels in the driveway on her own and started riding. Both kids will go for 10 km plus rides no problem.

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  2. Looks like you had a couple of great days! Really neat gifts all around...Gary's shirt, the run bike, the amazing race mat...so great!

    my day today was similar...cleaning up, relaxing, laundry...and a run :)

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  3. That picture of your Dad I totally thought was Kai but with blonde hair.
    Also where did you find the Amazing Race mat!

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  4. Maria, the mat is from the CBS store. I ordered it online...

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  5. Which one of the babies is drinking the beer? ;) Love all the kids. So many great years ahead for your family!!

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  6. Haha! Just noticing the beer now- looks like Isaac and Hannah have a close eye on it!

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