Holiday Fun!

 Ornaments:

This year we got Sawyer and Amanda a cat ornament with Alby's name on it. Mason, Bailey, and Nora's ornament was a cute camping one, but I don't have a picture of theirs.

A cute little Alby ornament.

We had a different kind of Christmas this year. We only got to have Mason, Bailey, and Nora here for a few days the week before Christmas, but we did some fun holiday stuff to celebrate while they were here, and then we had our regular Christmas with Sawyer and Amanda.

The afternoon that Mason and Bailey got here with Nora, Triska and Michael brought Crew over to see the animals. Crew had fun watching them from afar. 😅

Ginger bumped Nora with her butt, and Nora didn't hesitate to let Ginger know what she thought about that. 😂

Crew and Nora with the goats.

The next video is mostly just to showcase the crazy pigtails Nora had going on. 

That evening, Sawyer and Amanda came over. We had pizza, and snacks, with the BSU football game on upstairs, and the UFC fights on downstairs. So fun to have everyone together.

Nora trying out Aunt Noo Noo's Gingerbread cookies. She was a big fan.

She's a Boise state girl through and through.

Nora loved the rug we have in our office. She spent a lot of the night rubbing her face on it, and laying on it.

Of course that meant that Amanda and I spent a lot of time on it too. 

Pretty soon she had us all in there enjoying the rug! 😆 We all just pretty much followed Nora around and did whatever she wanted us to do. We're all big fans.

We corrupted Nora with the UFC fights. There was a brutal women's fight, and blood was flying. Nora would stare at the TV, and when we would all cheer and yell, she would start clapping and yelling right along with us. So stinking funny! 😆

That night we all got in our Christmas jammies. I got the cutest farm jammies on Etsy. They said, 'Making a list and CHICKEN it twice.' I loved them!

Sawyer-Amanda-Mason-Bailey-Nora-Grams-Pops

The next morning we had our Christmas with Mason, Bailey, and Nora. Having Nora here was the best thing ever! She made everything so much fun!

Tiny strawberry waffles for Christmas breakfast.

Watching her with her stocking was the cutest thing ever!

For being so young, she was a total rockstar at opening presents.

Nora helped her mama with her stocking too! 😁

Grams and Pops got Nora a cleaning set and a vacuum. They were big hits.

Nora spends lots of time at the park, so we got her a park scavenger hunt set.

I could watch her open presents all day long.

She loved her vacuum, and vacuumed my whole main floor.

We got the cutest hand and foot print farm animals from Nora. I love them!

Nora made Christmas so magical!

New York sweatshirts since they are taking a trip there in January.

We spent the rest of the morning watching Nora play with her stuff. Then we went to church.

That evening, Sawyer and Amanda came back over for a Christmas dinner. We also had our cute neighbors, Larry and Karen over, but I forgot to take a picture. It was a great day!

The next day we went to Sawyer and Amanda's house for a yummy brunch.

Sawyer and Amanda got Nora the cutest game. Butterflies shoot out of the elephant's nose, and you catch them with butterfly nets. So funny!

Nora got to meet Alby (aka Bean) for the first time. Alby was terrifies of her. 😂

So sweet, if they were both being held. Otherwise, Alby wouldn't come anywhere near her.

Sweet kitty kisses.

Nora read all of Aunt Noo Noo's books.

The rest of the day we hung around the house, and Nora got to spend some time with all the animals. 

Each morning she would stand at the sliding glass door and wait for me to walk the donkeys past while I was taking them on their walk.

Willow tried to climb the stairs to say hi to Nora! 😊

Willow was very smitten with her. It was so cute!

I love that animals have an instinct to be extra gentle around little people.

This is one of my favorite pictures! This is what I dreamed my farm life would be like!

Ginger loved Nora! She thought she had a new friend to play with that was just her size! 😄

Ginger was Nora's little shadow.

I wish Nora lived here, so she could be on the farm more, but I guess it just makes the moments when she is, that much better.

That night we all went to The Christmas River. So fun!

It's really the coolest place!

Nora somehow makes everything a little more magical and fun!

The grinch was hilarious! Bailey about died when he burped in Mark's face. 😂

Mason, Bailey, and Nora had to leave after a few days, so that was a bummer! Wish we could have Nora here for every Christmas!

We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with Amanda and Sawyer. We had a yummy Christmas Eve dinner. We tried something new this year; Sawyer made a brisket, Mark made homemade baked beans, I did cornbread, and Amanda made very yummy peppermint cupcakes. It was all so good!

Cutting the yummy brisket!

Christmas Eve dinner.

These cupcakes were bomb!

Sawyer and Amanda's Christmas jammies.

Stockings on Christmas morning.

I love that I have a family of readers. We got Amanda a couple books.

Sawyer got a Steam gift card.

A fun water jug for the cute hostess.

Ahhhsome Relaxation and Sushi Time gift cards!

The animals got lots of presents too! Reeses loves Christmas!

We finished the Bourne series, worked on a puzzle, and played games. Amanda got Sawyer a fun dinosaur game for Christmas, and we all loved it!

This is the Christmas puzzle we did. 

The holidays look different now that our kids are grown and have families of their own. This year ended up being great! We're just gonna try to embrace whatever it happens to look like in the coming years.