First off, I decided that since Adam and I didn't have Christmas parties for our jobs, we would throw one ourselves! We invited some close friends over and had a potluck dinner in the studio. Here are my decorations:
During dinner...obviously only a few of us were prepared for the photo, haha!
Kathryn made a really tasty holiday punch!
After dinner, we went out to the cabin in our woods and had dessert, more drinks, and played games. It was seriously the best night ever. We're going to have to do this every year. Here are the girls! Tara, Mary, Kathryn, and me. We all look related, don't we?!
Had to get a picture with my honey. :)
And we forced the guys into a picture as well. Reed, Craig, Chad, Adam.
The next day, we got our new puppy dog, Riddick! I haven't blogged about him either! We're not sure what breed he is. His litter of 4 puppies was found on the side of the road. One of Adam's friends was fostering the litter through the humane society and so Adam saw a pic of them on facebook. Long story short, he came to live with us on December 10th and we loooooooove him! We decided his birthday was September 18th after I counted back the weeks when they told us how old they thought he was. On the ride home, he cried when I held him but was OK when Adam held him.
He definitely liked Adam best! He cried whenever he couldn't see Adam. We were worried how the next day (Monday) would go when Adam was back to work. But me and Riddick bonded.
That first week, we were really good about getting him out for exercise each evening. Not so much since then, and since the weather has been cold lately!
A few days before Christmas, we did our annual cousin Polar Express. We had pizza and snacks, and watched the Polar Express movie. Corbin and Ren were so cute cuddling.
About as good of a photo as we could get of these crazies.
Here are a few miscellaneous photos. This below is a very common occurrence:
Santa came to Ren's school and I thought this photo with his expression was hilarious:
We celebrated with my parents a few days early because they went to Colorado to spend Christmas Eve + Day with my brother and his family. We ate a bunch of yummy food, then Grandma Nancy had gotten a bunch of craft supplies out. My boys love hot glue guns and cutting paper!
Who knows. Ha!
Riddick got to meet his uncle and aunt dogs - Cooper, Belle, and Tippy. There was lots of barking and growling, and a little playing. Riddick was worn out and fell asleep on one of their beds with Papa Bruce petting him.
Later that night back at home, this happened. Love.
On the 23rd, we tried out the new Fried Pie place that is run by some people from our church. So good!
Then we met up with Adam's bro Matt, sis Jessica, and their families at Exploration Place for a fun afternoon. Ren napped on the way there.
That evening, we all met at Jessica's for our Dreher family Christmas.
On Christmas Eve, we went to church in the morning. They said some kids could come up on stage during one of the Christmas carols, so Ren went up. He just stood and glared, did NOT sing. Pretty hilarious. He said he wasn't ever going to go up on stage again. Haha.
When we got home from church, before we ate or got in comfy clothes, I made us take our annual Christmas Day family photo. I knew that we would be in sweats for the unforseeable future, so this was the last time we were looking presentable. We had previously done Christmas with both sides of the family, so we were able to have a pretty chill Christmas Eve + Day.
We just hung out, lounged around, opened stockings. That evening, we went out to a Chinese buffet (still in sweats) with Adam's bro and his family. After that, we drove around and looked at Christmas lights since we hadn't had a chance to do that earlier in the season.
Once we got home, we loaded a bunch of bedding + supplies into our tiny little work pickup. The boys and I rode in the back while Adam and Riddick rode in the cab out to our cabin. It was COLD. We made a cozy bed on the mattresses in the loft.
I ended up getting super claustrophobic in the loft, but it was warm up there, while it was FREEZING down below. So Adam slept on the couch down there (this was our view from the loft), and I stayed in the loft, but put my head right next to the exit. It mostly kept me from panicking. We were nice and toasty up there, while Adam was wrapped in quilts on the couch and you could see his breath! We need some fans for circulation in there for sure!
This was his view of us from the couch. In the cabin, where you see the chairs and table downstairs, that will be the kitchen. The room to the right of the ladder will be the bathroom. The kitchen is mostly done as of now (end of February), but we haven't started on the bathroom and we still need to run water.
One of their presents was a new swing for the tree. They love it!
Adam got me a Harry Potter blanket that Riddick was using.
We played with our new toys for awhile and then went to lunch at IHOP. We saw some people from church there too, so the boys blew their straw wrappers at them.
Came back home for naps and more play. Had to do the swing again even though it was cold!
That night I cooked tacos and mac n cheese. Best dinner lol. I poured myself a big glass of Dr Pepper while I was cooking. Some people have wine, I have Dr Pepper.
And this has nothing to do with Christmas, but I like this photo so I'm including it!
