Christmas 2018 | Part Two

The evening of December 8th, we had our 2nd Annual Dreher Friendsmas. Last year, we ate in the studio and then spent the rest of the evening in the cabin playing games because we had a babysitter hanging with the boys in the house. But this year, my boys spent the night at my parents with their cousins, so after we finished dinner in the studio we just hung out in the living room instead of having to walk to the cabin in the cold.

Mary, Kathryn, me, Tara. I always force my friends into a photo session. :)

Kathryn and Reed are moving to Arizona this year, so this was their last time coming to our Christmas party. SO SO sad. :(

Adam dressed himself! He cleans up pretty good. :)

Last year, Tara and Chad had to bring their baby since she was so little. But this year they got to come baby-free!

Mary and Craig! We mistakenly dressed alike, in all black, haha.

We did a white elephant gift exchange and Adam got this hat, which means I got a cute hat!

We always try to do a cousin Polar Express night on an evening right before Christmas. This year, we did it at Jessica's house, and we decided it was probably our last year! It was stressful for the moms and the kids were over the movie basically before it even started. Maybe we'll have to start a new tradition.

Jessica made rainbow waffles, and I brought a bunch of nuggets from Chick fil a.

Ren made himself comfortable.

These 3 went downstairs and started playing Minecraft or something before we started the movie. Then that's all they REALLY wanted to be doing the rest of the night, but we FORCED them to watch the movie, lol.

We had popcorn and Trigger performed tricks to get some.

A moment of calm from Ren.

Snuggling!

Then it was time for some cocoa too.

Ren loves cocoa!

Adam's brother Matt and his family came to town a few days before Christmas. This is when they first got here, Breegan and Amos are big buddies!! They were happy to see each other.

Kids eating Christmas dinner. Daddy bothering Ren.

For our Dreher family Christmas, we did our own version of the show Nailed It. Where you see a professionally made baked good, and then you have a time limit to re-create it. It took a bunch of prep work, but was super fun. Here we are, cutting out the cookies and baking them before the competition.



Here's Papa and Sutton, decorating their cookies.

And their finished work:

Uncle Matt and Ren were a team.

Corbin and Steve were a team.

            

Their final products:

Bailey helping Amos and Breegan.

           

Aubrynn and I were a team, here's our finished work (mine on the left, her's on the right):

Janet was the judge. She chose Jessica + Shay as the winners (I didn't get a photo of theirs!) and then Aubrynn and I were 2nd place. Then it was time to open presents!

Didn't take too many photos during that part. Afterwards, we cleared the wrapping and took our traditional family photo:

And our crazy one:

Matt, Shay, Amos, and Arlo stayed in our cabin that weekend, and the boys all got matching dinosaur shirts from Grandma. So of course we had to get a photo of them all matching. Ohhhh Arlo. :)

On the 23rd, after church, Bailey offered to babysit ALL the kids so that the adults could go out and have a kid-free lunch together. It was amazing!! We were so grateful to her. So Bailey, Corbin, Aubrynn, Breegan, Sutton, Ren, Amos, and Arlo all stayed at Jessica's house while we went to eat at a restaurant called Mama Nith's. It was a crawfish place. VERY interesting. They had this on their wall, so of course we had to get a photo by it.

This was my meal. It was fries with shrimp and a special sauce on top. Really good, but SO filling.

Shay and Jessica both got shrimp in these huge mixing bowls, covered in sauce.

They still had eyes! And you had to peel them...I'd never eaten shrimp like that before.

It was definitely an experience! So fun though.

Christmas 2018 | Part One

We began celebrating Christmas on December 7th, as that's what Michael and his family came to Kansas to be with us. We were so glad they were able to come at all, since Sara was very pregnant!

On that Friday, we wanted to get Carson out of the house and away from the pets, so we bundled up and went to the park that's across from Grandma's work. We played and looked for trolls under the bridge.

It was pretty cold, so we went to the library at Grandma's work to play with all the toys there.

That evening, we ate and opened presents at my parents' house.

The next morning, Sutton had a basketball game in Newton. So we all went to the game to watch him play.

After that, we drove out to Goessel to the cemetery to bury my Grandpa Melvin's ashes. He passed away at the beginning of November, and and Michael was unable to make it back for his funeral. So we kept the ashes til this day so we could bury them as a family. Adam and my dad had dug the hole on an earlier day. Once we got there on this day, Mom said a few words.

Mom placed his urn in the hole, then we each took turns shoveling some dirt on top.

Afterwards, we went to the nursing home where both of my grandmas live. Grandma Norma was getting up some energy to come sit with us out in the gathering room.

Glad we were able to all get together and see them while Michael and Sara were here.

We spent some more time with Michael, Sara, Carson, and Selah, and then they left Sunday morning.

Ren had a Christmas party at school on the last day before Christmas break.

At his preschool parties, they always have a treat and a drink. After they clean up, they go get their towel to sit on and listen to a story and sing some songs.