New Year Fun

For New Years we joined our friends, the Petersons, on a trip to San Antonio.  The kids had never been to San Antonio, so it was time to honor the Texas tradition!  We went up on December 30th and spent the first day downtown.  We walked along the river walk and stopped and had lunch there.

And of course no trip to San Antonio is complete without a stop at the Alamo.  We watched the short film about it and toured around the grounds for a while.  Its been ages since I've been there and it seemed much smaller than it use to - funny how many things are doing that as I get older!

We stayed at the Hilton Hill Country which was lots of fun at night.  They heated the outdoor pool so the kids got to swim and they had fire pits to roast marshmallows.   

On New Years Eve we had planned to spend the day at Six Flags (Fiesta Texas.)  When we woke up that morning it was raining.  We waited a couple hours and it was still raining.  But we decided to go anyway, and it turned out to be great!  There was hardly anyone there.  We practically had the park to ourselves.  The kids ran from ride to ride going on whatever they wanted.

You couldn't keep Paige off the rides.  She was very disappointed if ever the big kids did one she couldn't do.  She loved it!  Syd on the other hand, went on a "slightly bigger" roller coaster first and was terrified after that.  She would ride the little ones, but anything that had a track she was not interested in.  Shaye rode her first big coaster.  I coxed her into it and she was really scared, but she did it.  I didn't get the reaction I was hoping for at the end.  You know, the "I was so scared but it turned out super fun lets do it again" reaction.  She said she liked it but didn't want to go upside down anymore.

They ended up closing the park early, around 6, since there weren't enough people there, but we had been there 5 hours and the kids did more in that time than they would have in a whole day on a busy day.  It was a great way to spend New Years all together.  We got dessert at a restaurant and went back to the hotel for marshmallows and ringing in the New Year.

Us with our friends, the Petersons - Mark, Kim, Isaac, Lexi, and Noah.

Merry and Bright

As every year, Christmas day consisted of tearing into too many presents for a few hours and then playing with them all day!  Shaye and Syd got new bikes, Santa brought a ping pong table for the whole family, and there were plenty of toys to go around!

Jaxson giving Shaye a thank you hug for the Texans pennant she got him all by herself.

 Sam made Jaxson this lego table so he could keep it in his room and have a place for all the pieces and a place to build them.  Legos are such a pain - I mean, so fun!

Shaye also got Sam a gift on her own.  She picked out a baseball that says All Star DAD and a bat to go in his office.

Guess what Paigey got for Christmas?!  Bad news - she made a giant mess. Good news - she loved it and it was all gone that day!

 Then it was time for Christmas dinner.  We had turkey, ham, and all the usuals.  Afterwards, GG and Grandpa headed home and me and Aunt Colie took the 3 older kids to our annual Christmas night movie.  Another holiday season come and gone.  I always hate it when its over!

Traditions

I love traditions!  We have a few we do every Christmas Eve with the kids.  This year we did them at GG and Grandpa's house so Brooks, Leah, and the boys could do them with us.

First, the cookie decorating contest.  If course if there's kitchen work to do Paige is on the counter helping.  Everybody decorates a cookie or two and then they are judged.  The kids love this activity.  I mean cookies, frosting, and endless toppings... why wouldn't they?!

This year Sam and Brooks did the judging.  There are several categories to choose from and fun prizes to be won.  Serious competition.  :-)

 We also always read the nativity story from the Bible.  Grandpa or Sam will read it and the kids usually use a fabric nativity set and put out the pieces when the story calls for that.  This year, to accommodate more kids, they dressed up.  Grandpa read and the kids played their parts.

Then we exchanged gifts with Brooks' family and headed home to put our beautiful cookies out for Santa.  But not without getting a few Robinsons family photos!  The second picture is a reenactment of an old family photo we took all staggered and with sunglasses - super cool!