We woke up and packed up and went to Oroville for a big NEW YEARS EVE PARTY at Kevin and Liz’s house!! We had Payton and Scarlet with us. We drove to Oroville and then ate Subway at the walmart while Ben and I shopped for all the yummy food for the next 3 days. Then we got over to K and L’s around 3 or 4pm.
5:00
7:00
After Dinner Liz had some games planned for the kids! Pass The Prize Game!
I went out to watch Tracie do her chores on the farm 🙂
Then we called everyone in to go through the boxes of Dads stuff that had been sitting in the hallway. It was mostly his clothes and shoes and then a couple random items. It was nice to reminisce and talk about Dad all morning. I hate that he wasn’t there with us and instead we were doing this! I miss him.
12:00pm
That afternoon we got the kids and stuff together to go to the church and play. We didn’t have as many people this time but it was good to get out of the house. We played some Kubb – Shannon and Tommi had hand painted sets Josh and John – one NBA and one NFL!! They were cool.
3:02 who knows where Perry is?
4:08 Kubb
4:09 Kubb
Shannon and Tommi had to head to the airport and the rest of us played a little Froggy ball in the gym. Josh was also gone at this point and Mal was gone just for the day.
4:55
5:05
5:30
Gaga Ball (froggy ball)
Then we needed to get back and figure out dinner: Pasta and chicken nuggets for the kids and then we all went out to a burger place!
6:06pm
6:30pm
The kids were awesome babysitters! and then the games continued:
Tracie and Grammie and I fed the kids and went Grocery shopping. We took the new work truck to the store and were dying when we came out – no way Tracie and her prego belly were getting in the driver seat!
2:00pm
And then we were back at the games. And mom went and did her temple shift. While she was gone – John and some of the guys installed her new dishwasher!
3:00pm Taco Cat
5:40pm
5:40 Arburetum
6:00 Floor is Lava, and Dodgeball
10:50 Royal Rumble – Sean vs. Benji, Packer and Payton
We got keys to the BIG church and headed over around 11:30am. Everyone wanted to play basketball and that ended up being the game of choice. Our family held out and finally got a little soccer game in at the end. The Human Slingshot that Megan made for Tyler was also very cool to try.
Then we had to be back at the house ready for gift exchange at 4:00. All the adults would be there at that time and then Kevin and Christy’s families would be leaving. We did the kid one the night before so that Kylee and Westley could be there. We started with Grandma Giving all of her GIFTS! and we gave our gifts to mom.
At 5:40pm we started the Adult Gift Exchange and it went until 7:15pm:
Brady and Sam had Ben and I and they got us these sweet Chacos!!! I had Ryan and gave him a BYU hoodie with a bunch of random stuff in the pocket. Ben had Rob and gave him a Dawn Patrol Captains Kit! There were so many fun and funny gifts. The fam is a little out of control but I think its still working cause we all just love the entertainment of it all.
That night some people left but the games continued:
7:30 – Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza
10:20pm
10:40 – Oh Shucks
11:20pm
I know there were big things that I didn’t mention… The first day Annie had a fever and was sick so we were all on hold while she and Mary got Covid tested! That was stressful for Ryan. Negative tests so here we are. And then Christy and Rob’s suburban died on them. Pretty sure it is the transmission so they rented a van to get everyone back to Holister!
We drove to Matts condo in St. George on Christmas night and then got up and headed on our way to moms house! We had Annie with us. We were just happy to have clear roads and blue skies.
7:07am
Around 1:00 we were passing through Bakersfield and that’s when Than and Erica caught up to us so we all stopped and went to a taco shop together for lunch. AND then we cruised on to Sacramento: Orangevale! We got there around 5:00? Mom and everyone had a delicious Christmas dinner waiting for us 🙂
9:00 – gaming with cousins
We left in a hurry on Christmas so LaNell had to come pick up Lambeau and all of his stuff. She was such a saint to watch him for us!
The kids got up at 7, but they couldn’t get us up until 7:30! Then we went through our stockings first and started opening presents around 8:30am.
guitar
lego
doorables
watch
soccer ball?
lego
lego
car
moped
sweats
football target
ear buds
switch
greenbay ball and gloves
makeup
Just so many fun pictures – so fun to watch and be in the middle of the christmas excitement. These guys are the best!
Cash and Guns game
hand eye ball
car
lego
football
moped/scooter
game?
beyblades
Pumpkin Pie for BREAKFAST
By noon we had opened everything and the kids had really opened up most of the toys and tried them out! Millie was sad that the scooter had to charge for 14 hours but mostly we were surrounded in happiness.
We did have to take showers over at the Falabella’s house.
As the day went on Erica called me about driving home cause they were also planning to drive the next day but the roads and storms were looking BAD. I initially figured we’d just get up early and power through but as Ben and I talked about it we felt like we needed to avoid Donners pass/Reno/the summit. The road had been closed and more storms were brewing so next thing I know we are making plans to go through Vegas and to leave Christmas night so that the drive wouldn’t be as long!
We started/finished packing up and then went over to the Falabella house for dinner!
When we pulled a present out of the basement on Christmas Eve night – – I stepped on wet carpet 🙁 in the little cubby under the stairs – so we investigated and the water heater has been leaking! Ben and I turned it off and drained it and did what we could to dry it out… We had other priorities that night so we just left it off and drying and got on with getting to bed for CHRISTMAS.
