December Activities

We had a very fun December. First for my birthday Christopher took me and our friends the Renchers up to Vancouver for bowling and food. When we got to the bowling alley all the Canadian 5 pin bowling was taken so we bowled the normal 10 pin game for about 30 mins till a lane opened up.  The 5 pin bowling was different but really fun. First of all they only have 5 pins, and the pins are more rubbery, you get three bowls per frame, the ball is a lot smaller and all the balls weigh the same.

We loved being able to chuck the little ball and see how many pins we could knock down. Then it was interesting trying to decipher how they scored, they had the total listed but sometimes there would be a letter like Y, HP, Io, R, or other things. We still haven't looked up what they meant but it was a blast.

For lunch we went to get chinese food since I have been craving it and haven't found anything great in Bellingham yet. We went to the Peaceful Restaurant one I saw featured on Food Network's Diner's, Drive In's and Dives. It was amazing, we got pan fried dumplings, a chicken dish, noodles, and a one-of-a-kind beef roll. I was in heaven, I was so happy to finally have good chinese.

I had a great birthday and loved being able to spend the day with Christopher and our friends.

Christmas

We had Christmas down in California this year and had a very fun filled time.  We got to spend time with all my siblings and Mason got to see his whole family and play with his cousins.

Some of the things we were able to do this trip were:

See Santa- We saw Santa at both my in-law's ward Christmas party and at my parents house. Mason was great both times and didn't cry at all

Go to different parks- Mason loved being able to have new parks to play at and have cousins to play with. It made it so much more fun for him having friends to run around with.

Bike Ride- The boys were the ones that went out mountain biking a couple of times, the first time they went it had rained pretty hard the day before so they came back extremely dirty but they had a blast. They also went road biking one day with all the boys and Tori. My mom says that Christopher was a bad influence on my dad going on the ride and having so much fun that now my dad wants to buy a mountain bike.

Bounce at a bouncy house- The day we originally planned on going to Fairytale Town it was closed so we went to Party Palace that had some arcade stuff, bouncing things and slides. Mason loved playing basketball, jumping around and shooting the ball. He also loved pretending to drive the snowmobile on one of the games.

Take Family pictures- Since we actually had everyone together we took family pics, which with the size of my family you can only imagine the chaos. It actually went pretty quick and had minimal amounts of complaining and we got a few good shots. The best was watching the people act funny to get the kids' attention to look at the camera.

Play in the backyard- There was a lot of time spent playing in the backyard. It was so nice to have a space fenced in for Mason to play around outside as long as he wanted, without me being with him the whole time.  The kids loved the trampoline, climbing on the play structure and going down the slide, playing baseball, running around on the tennis court, kicking balls, and swinging on the swing.

Decorate gingerbread men- We decided not to do full-on houses and opt out for gingerbread men instead, the kids didn't care one bit. I could barely get the candy on the gingerbread man fast enough before Mason snatched it off to eat. He loved being able to have lots and lots of candy and treats at Grammie and Paka's house.

Christmas Bingo- Normally we do bingo with Christopher's family at Thanksgiving and it's Turkey bingo, but I thought it would be fun to do bingo with all of my family at Christmas.  They loved it, The kids made their bingo boards with pictures and were so excited to open their prize when they got a bingo. 

 The adults were almost more fun to watch. When you got a bingo you had to "Ho..Ho...Ho.." and some of the results were awesome. Shaun called his out so fast you could hardly understand it, and Brittany had one where she was a little excited and ended up saying it almost three times more than necessary. I loved being able to call out the words and listen to everyone say"One more...just one more."  Or, "Enough with 'Over the River' already."  The prizes were a laugh and we had fun playing with them.

Frisbee Golf- We borrowed some frisbees from a friend of ours and with his fribees, our own, and an early present of frisbees my dad got we had enough for everyone to go out and play frisbee golf two different times. It was windy and pretty cold but we had a lot of fun anyway.  Watching and listening to people throw the frisbees was great. 

We had some pretty good throws and some that ended up in crazy places. I was glad that I wore my rain boots that day and was able to fish out the three or so that didn't make it over the water hazard we encountered. Tori threw hers up into a tree so she climbed on up and threw it from there. The kids were good considering how cold it was and Mason was a dream sitting quietly in the stroller the whole time.

Nativity- Every Christmas Eve the kids re-enact the nativity and this year Mason was a wise man. I know I'm biased because he's my kid, but he was the cutest wise man ever.  He didn't do exactly what he was supposed to, he gave his gift to the baby but changed his mind and took it back.  It was so fun to have that tradition along with rice pudding where we all say a rhyme and eat rice pudding hoping for the lone almond so our wish will come true. 

 

Presents- We were able to open the pj's my mom makes for us every year on Christmas Eve but all the other presents had to wait till morning. 

Christmas morning we got to sleep till about 7am when Mason woke up. We took him over to the room with the rest of the kids until everyone was ready then we headed down the stairs.  

Mason got a magna-doodle and ABC/123 superhero book from Santa.  He wasn't too interested in opening presents at first and was too impatient to wait his turn to come around each time so he took a breakfast break and came back later.

Once he opened up a couple and understood the things were his, he kicked it into high gear and continued to open each and every one of his presents within a few minutes.  He loves all of his gifts and we are so grateful to everyone who got them for him, and for all the gifts we got too!

 

 

We also got a chance to skype with my sister Wynne who is currently serving a mission in Brasil, we are so proud of her and can't wait to see her very soon.

Fairtytale town- We checked to make sure it was open before we went the second time and we did make it to FairytaleTown. It's mostly slides and fun things for the kids to climb on.  Mason saw the cow through the gate as we were walking toward the entrance and wasn't really interested in anything until we had seen the cow.

 After that he could thoroughly enjoy himself and loved seeing the other animals, going down all the slides, and running the crooked mile 5 or 6 times. 

 

Leatherby's-  A trip back home would be incomplete without Leatheryby's.  Christopher and I split thinking I wouldn't be able to eat a whole sundae by myself, and I left as I always do wanting more, but this time I could have actually eaten more. I wasn't too heartbroken considering how many treats I had eaten over the last week and a half. Mason got his own bowl of sorbet and downed it within a couple minutes and asked for more.  I guess next time we'll have to make sure he has enough also.  It was so good and we will be looking forward to it next time.

We loved our time there and are so grateful to spend the holiday with family. Thanks to everyone for the presents, laughs and memories. We love you guys!