Ringing in 2021!

The year 2020 has really gotten a bad name. And while it hasn't been all bad, for our family and friends at least, it was nice to think of the possibilities of something better in the New Year.  Something Josh and I love to do is host out friends for get-togethers and we were excited to party in our new basement. So we decided to have our closest friends over and made this an adults-only get together. We do a lot with the kids, and our kids all get along, but sometimes it's fun to be grown-ups. And BONUS, we got to celebrate Stacey's 41st Birthday!

Fun and fancy jello shots! (and they were pretty yummy too)

The girls!

Merry Christmas 2020!

Christmas Eve with matching Christmas PJs! And a photoshoot by the tree. I have no idea how long these kids will allow this, but I really enjoyed the full-family matchy-matchy this year! And so did the boys! So it was a Win-Win. The kids had a great Christmas. No tears or disappointment this year and no unrealistic or unmet expectations. I actually didn't take a bunch of pictures of the present opening, i just enjoyed the moment. And it was wonderful.  

Friendsmas!

There's not really anything better than good friends who are like family. And every year, the Malone and Owens families make a point to get together for our own Friends Christmas. The kids have grown so much, but they are still rowdy as ever and nearly impossible to get pictures of! This year we decorated homemade gingerbread and sugar cookies and ate lots of yummy food and tried out new fancy drink recipes!

and Blessed

Christmastime can be super intense. So many activities, so many presents to buy, so many decorations to put up and traditions to undertake and goodies to bake.  And sometimes the expectations of Christmas far outweigh the realities, and then comes disappointment and fatigue and unmet ideas. So many things this year have been "ruined" or made difficult by the Covid-19 pandemic, but I have to say that Christmastime was not one of them in this house. Being home and having less other things to do allowed us to really enjoy this time of year. Our family had so many blessings over this Christmas season...here are some of them!

Finn shopped for and spent his own money on gifts for his family and friends. This was all on his own! It made my heart feel so full to watch him fully enjoy GIVING

Keagan saw how much it blessed Finn to buy presents for his people that he asked me to take him to do some shopping too!

We went to see Santa at Patti's but ran into Sponge Bob!!

Keagan's Christmas List that he gave to Santa

Finn's Christmas list. I am glad I took pictures of these because they were given to Santa that very night!

On a Saturday afternoon Santa rode a firetruck through our neighborhood and his elves gave the kids goodie bags!

Only one of my kids was home and he had Bryce over! They thoroughly enjoyed this!

Sunday before Church apparel and a picture with their buddy Corbin! 

My beautiful Christmas Babies!

Cookie decorating time!!!