Christmas Vacation 2016

We had a wonderful Christmas vacation as a family. We were able to do many fun things and enjoy being out of the routine for a couple weeks. We spent the first day off visiting my best friend Stacey and her kids at the park. 

 They loved the tire swings.

Ella enjoys being with Gabbi because she loves reading and crafts like she does.

Cute girls playing!

Cavin enjoyed chasing around the park.

And...Deacon spent some time driving. James Matheson park was a really fun park. We spent the afternoon at my brother Chris' house and had a fun time playing there as well!
We had a visit from Daphne for a couple hours one day and then she came back for a few days. We made treats and pretzels, and we enjoyed the nice weather. 
Christmas eve came and we celebrated that night with my family who lives in Houston and Daphne who came to spend Christmas with us. 

We ate dinner together, then the kids decorated cookies. After that we played a game called kahoot which was a lot of fun to play. Afterward we did a Christmas light scavenger hunt.

 In our car we had Charlotte, Channing, Daphne, Chira, Crew and I. Channing and Charlotte took turns getting out to take pictures.

 We had a good time finding all the items on the list!

We tied for first place. The other two cars were: in the first car, Ragnar, Chris, Grandpa, Cavin, Coleton, and Deacon, and in the last car was Grandma, Ella, Caden, and Natalie. The last car would have won because they had the most items, but they were also 5 minutes late, so they ended up losing. It was fun to see everyone excited about it.

The kids did a puppet show of the Christmas story from Luke in the bible.

 Ragnar played some Christmas songs as we sang along.

Hopefully everyone enjoyed themselves and we had a fun night together!

Christmas morning was on a Sunday this year. We didn't have church until 12:00 so we were able to celebrate in the morning.

I love the peace and quiet of the lights on the tree and the nicely wrapped presents the morning of Christmas before everyone comes down.

The Mannheim steamroller music played and down they came!

Cavin got a Garmin vivofit jr for Christmas, magic tracks, legos, beyblades, lego wii game, a prodigy membership, and other small things for Christmas.

Ella got some beanie boos, a sewing machine and supplies, a Garmin vivofit jr, beanie boo slippers, and shopkins for Christmas.

Deacon got a little peoples skybridge playset, cars, and a play rug with cars.

Channing got her bitty baby American Doll that she wanted. It has orange hair just like her and she named her Stacey. She got clothes, car carrier, diaper bag, and everything you can imagine to go with it!

And we must not forget Deacon's favorite one...A James Harden doll. HAHA!

Ragnar and I have this funny saying that we got from a pillow at my Grandma Wall's house that we always joke and say to each other..."If friends were flowers, I'd pick you." So I made him a pillow with our pictures on the back! I also gave him shoes, shirts, movies, and tickets to the Houston Symphony since he has been wanting to go.

This was the end disaster!

I got a piano!! There was a man who gave it to us for free and we just paid a company to deliver it to us. I was excited to have it! I also got clothes, running lights, a fitbit, and other fun things!

Our annual picture in front of the tree with our favorite gift!

We were so glad to have Daphne here joining us!! She is always fun to have around and the kids love her!

After all the fun, we settled down and got ready for church and refocused on the meaning of Christmas.

 We only had an hour service, but we enjoyed our time there.

Deacon wanted to take James with him, but thankfully we convinced him he didn't need to join us!

I love sending Christmas cards, and this was our card from this year.

The day after Christmas we went together to a Rockets game!! We love watching them play!!

Ella left the next morning to spend a couple days on a special trip with Aunt Daphne in Baton Rouge, LA. I will do a special post for her for that one!

We went over to the grandparents house and went to see where there new house is being built! They have a fun playground in their new subdivision, so the kids were excited about that!

Friday we went to the Houston Zoo with my brother Chris and his family!

It was a little chilly for Houston, but a nice day!

The kids have loved spending extra time with their cousins and just love having them close. I wish school didn't make it so hard to get them together! New Years eve we also spent with my brother for my nephew Crew's birthday.

We finished off the break with one more family trip to the Toyota Center to see the Rockets play! They have been doing really well and hopefully they will go far this year. I sure loved the extra time I had with the kids and miss them already!

Miller's Annual Ugly Sweater Party!

This is an event I look forward to all year. Our friends have thrown an Ugly Sweater for the past several years. We look forward to gathering all our friends each year as some have moved and our wards have changed. This year her invitation said wear your "ugly sweater/outfit/jammies/sweatsuit;whatever fits your fancy." So we took advantage of that! We decided to go in German attire, lederhosen and all!

If you marry a German, you go as Germans! Here we are in all our glory!! There were three categories for prizes..The best sweater, the most original, and the lamest. We won for the most original, so it was a success! Second year in a row we won.

We ate some yummy food and played games and then had our white elephant exchange. The hot item was this lovely calendar that Emily made. Each month had one of the men featured. Ragnar was the featured Keltic man for April :) haha!!

Here was the crew. We looked amazing ;) We sure have a fun time and we love this group of people!

Nutcracker Performance 2016

One of my favorite traditions with my mom is taking the girls each year to the Houston Ballets Nutcracker performance. I think this was Ella's 7th year and Channing's 2nd. We have tried to go to a couple amateur performances, but the one downtown is so much better, so we stuck with that one even though it is expensive!! 

Here are all the girls who could make it that live in Houston. My sister Natalie, my mom, my sister in law Chira and her daughter Charlotte, and then us of course.

We walked over and ate at the HardRock Cafe for lunch before the performance. It was delicious. 

We had great seats. There was snow and confetti that came down on us from the ceiling a couple times. The girls loved that! Also, the rats came through the walkways and the girls weren't as keen on that ;) It was a new version of the nutcracker, it definitely felt more modern. It was a little strange since we are so used to the original version, but it was still a great performance. We love this tradition!

Weekend Fun

A couple weekends ago we went over to the German Festival in Tomball, Texas. Ragnar was excited to eat his sausage and Reibekuchen. We had fun walking around the shops and reminiscing about Germany.

It was a cold morning! Sadly the only pictures I got were of the kids in the petting zoo area.

Their cousins got to join them so they had fun with that!

On the way home, the girls and I stopped at our community "Winter Festival". The boys had both fallen asleep in the car. We did some of the crafts and then rode on a train ride.

We also did our annual gingerbread houses. The girls did their house and the boys did their house. 

We love this time of year!!