Traditions

About a month ago, John and I were hanging out with a family that I used to babysit for during high school and college. They have four little girls, the youngest being seven and the oldest is a freshman in high school. I always used to babysit them while their parents went to a work Christmas party. Trying to be the fun babysitter, we always ended up decorating christmas cookies and watching a christmas movie. While John and I were there, the youngest, Remmie said to me "Remember when we used to decorate christmas cookies and watch the Grinch and you would knit? I really liked that." Sara, her mom told me that she had said that to her as well. It struck me that this was a Christmas tradition that Remmie associated with me, that I had never really thought twice about. The girls are old enough now that they don't need to hire a babysitter, but in light of the Christmas season, we decided to decorate Christmas cookies and watch The Grinch again this year- I didn't, however, bring my knitting needles :)

I told Randy and Sara that they could have a night out, but they decided to stay and partake in the festivities- which was a first for them, but fun to have them join us! It was also fun to have John be there as well and have him see how important this family is to me and how great they all are. The youngest two girls think he is just the greatest! We played the Wii for a while and both of the girls wanted to take John on in every game they played! Sara and John also made a bet and whoever lost had to stand out in the snow for one minute- barefoot! John lost and Sara was content with just the knowledge of being right so she let John off the hook, and then Remmie chimed in "I'll do it with him" So they both stood out on the deck barefoot for a minute!! We also joined them in going christmas caroling which was a fun addition to our festive night!

Decorating cookies!

Remmie hard at work!

John and Randy cooking dinner for six girls!!

One foot on top of the other method

It was colder than she thought!

Cold little piggies!

50 Free Christmas Cards!

If anyone had a doubt in their mind, I'm so thankful for my sister-in laws, Jayne, Jill, Jenn and Belen! They are all so creative and have done some amazing things with their photos- whether it's gifts or cars! I had never used shutterfly before meeting them, but they've gotten me hooked on this website!! Shutterfly did a cool promotion this year for bloggers to receive 50 free Christmas cards by registering their e-mail address and doing a blog post about all of the amazing things they offer. The Christmas cards that my sisters have done this year and in past years have been absolutely amazing! I've had fun flipping through shutterfly's designs trying to help my mom out in doing our family card. I'm not to the point of birth announcements in my life yet but all of my sisters have done some cute ones too! It's also become a Christmas tradition with my brother and sister to do a calendar for my parents for Christmas. I wouldn't consider myself to be super technologically savvy but shutterfly is very easy to navigate and we're always impressed with how quickly we receive the gift- since occasionally we order it only days before Christmas! :)

Thanksgiving

Since Christmas is approaching rather quickly, I wanted to quick touch on Thanksgiving before all of this holiday's festivities! We were so blessed to be able to go to Florida with John's parents, their friends and all of their friends, grandkids, etc. It was quite a bunch but we had a blast!! This is an annual trip for this group, but an event that I was being initiated into this year! We shared a condo with Jan, Jerry, Jared, Belen, James and Elena and then Jill and Jayne had a condo with their kids two floors below us. Every morning everyone met for a group meeting and thought for the day. The first night I had double checked my alarm to make sure we didn't miss the morning meeting at 9:30, but come 7:15 our bedroom was echoing with all of the little kids eating breakfast. Not the relaxed vacation mornings I had anticipated, but it was so fun coming out for breakfast and having the kids be excited to see you- I wouldn't have traded it for anything! It was also so wonderful being able to see friends we hadn't seen in a while and getting to know other people that I had only met once or twice. I got to know a few more of the Coe women, and I am still amazed at how incredible all of them are! I am so thankful to have married into such an amazing family/group of people! Another thing I really enjoyed about the week was the dinners. Since it was such a large group of people, every night we had dinner with a different family, and some great conversations evolved almost every night.

I was really excited to be able to spend more time with James. I love spending time with all of the nieces and nephews, but every time I see James I feel like he's grown so much! This week for some reason he decided to pluralize my name and started calling me "Kellys" I loved it! John's a little jealous though because James still won't say John- but I'm flattered that James remembers me!

My wake-up call

Poppy doing a little "babysitting"

John and Shaelyn in the zero entry pool- a hot spot during vacation

Monreau my little diva :)

Belen was on a walk and the boys were tossing James

A group shot

Halloween Party

I'm a bit behind on my blog, but I wanted to make sure to get these pictures up since we don't get to just hang out with my parents very often! My dad is on the board at Circle Theatre, here in Grand Rapids, and they put on a pretty cool Halloween party. I went last year with a friend but convinced John and my parents to attend this year as well. My mom borrowed her tea-bag costume from a friend, John and I went as Spartans and my dad was dead set on being a monk. Steph came over before we left to try and help him put on a bald cap (that he insisted he needed) but it ended up looking more like a do-rag so he bagged that idea. The party was at the house of someone who is part of the Gerber family, and happens to love Halloween! The decorations were incredible and everything was very festive! The house in itself was pretty cool too- there were secret rooms that looked like they were just part of the wall and they had several activities as well! Here's a few pictures before we kicked off the night!

John Getting used to not wearing any pants