A Very Merry Christmas

We have had a very fun week celebrating Christmas!

Issa had blast with her dance studio family at the Christmas party. She made a very festive tree:

Buddy the Elf brought big laughs and much family fun:

We finally went to see The Christmas Carol at DPAC:

It is a Triangle Tradition in its 48th year, and I loved it. The verdict is out for everyone else. 

For the first time, we successfully made hot cocoa bombs--I should say Issa did:

And me made Solstice Lanterns:

Unfortunately, it was a cold, rainy mess the night of the Solstice, so we opted not to actually do the walk. We did enjoy our glowing lanterns and a Christmas movie, though!

We made the traditional Christmas cookies at Nana's:

Well..sort of traditional. Same recipe--odd decorations:

I'm sad I didn't get a picture of Issa's Jean-gerbread Men army. They were hysterical with their blue pants and different colored tops.

Christmas Eve was a full day of happy. Issa found a gift from her studio on our porch:

And we went to Nana's for apps and a mashed potato bar. This year, the kids had to win Minute to Win It games to open their gifts, and they had to pick the game based on the supplies laid out here:

We started with a snowball catch:

Issa and her plie won that game; it let her actually keep the pompom snowballs in the bucket:

They tied in the snowman wrap competition:

Issa won pin the nose on Rudolph:

And we took a pause in the action for Christmas PJ pictures:

There was a Christmas version of Headbands:

Charades:

And jingle the bells out of the ribbon spool:

Christmas morning was quiet with just the four of us:

The dogs loved the giant balls in the stockings:

They didn't survive the day. The cats were much more gentle with their stocking of toys:

Evan's big gift was a phone; he is finally able to communicate independently with the outside world:

Issa is very thrilled with her new apple watch:

We had a lot of tech support set-up before Nana and Aunt Shannon joined us for an afternoon of The Sound of Music and board games:

We ended the day with a fabulous beef rib roast that Brad worked on for days:

It was a very holly jolly Christmas, and we are enjoying a quiet week before we return to the real world again.