Christmas 2016...

Christmas 2016 we ended up with the gift that seemingly keeps on giving...sickness that is passed throughout the family.  We had to cut our festivities short due to the stomach bug that rolled through the Brauchler Christmas, but all in all we had a great Christmas season.

 

Our first Christmas was the weekend before Christmas with the Zurcher family.  Unfortunately an ice storm rolled through the night before so we delayed our trip by a few hours, but the roads ended up being ok.  We all met at Nana and Papa's to open presents and have lunch.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures.

 

We celebrated with the Roberts side on Christmas Eve.  We started the day with brunch, then opened presents and the girls played.  Jeremy, Avery and Maddy came home for naps (Avery had been under the weather so she needed to rest) while Kens and I went to the 2 pm service at church to serve in the 3 year old class.  We all went to the 4 pm Christmas Eve service and then went back to Grammy and Grampy's for dinner and the Christmas story.

 

We came back home for our usual Christmas Eve traditions before bed.  We read the Night Before Christmas, sprinkled reindeer food in the front yard, said our good-byes and gave hugs to Sparkles and then set our cookies and milk for Santa.

Sunday morning we woke and had breakfast here followed by presents.  We spent the day relaxing at home, playing with new presents and rearranging bedrooms to make room for the new toys. 

New American Girl dolls brought by Santa

We left after lunch to head up to Nana and Papa's to celebrate.  We had dinner and then the adults opened presents after the kiddos went to bed.  This is when it all seemingly went south...Emery and Papa spent most of the night up with the stomach bug.  We were able to keep the kiddos entertained playing and watching movies for most of the morning and delayed present opening until everyone was awake and feeling better.  We relaxed after lunch, ate an early dinner and then we all headed back home.  The stomach bug has since been passed through the family.

 The new big blue elephant she asked Santa for.

 

New fake glasses for all the kiddos.

We are thankful for the generosity of family members and time spent together, regardless of the unexpected "gift" we all shared.  We are looking forward to 2017 and are hopeful for a great (and healthy) start to the year.  

Christmas Card 2016...

(Front)

(Back)



2016 Family Pictures...

We had our family pictures taken in August.  Despite some questionable weather, we were able to get them in and got some decent pictures.  We were able to overlap with the Lindvall family for a few pictures so we could get a group shot and a few of the cousins.  Here are some of our favorites.

 



Christmas Activities {2016}...

We have had a fun and busy Christmas season.  Here is what all we've been up to in pictures.

 

Sparkles our Elf came back this year and brought matching jammies for the girls and their dolls.

 

 

Nana and Papa treated us all to the Yuletide Celebration and we enjoyed a great show and dinner out.

Not the best family pic, but it will have to do.

We hit up Jolly Days at the Children's Museum with our friends.

Maddy had Gingerbread night at Preschool and she chose Daddy to go with her.

 

We visited with Santa at the Library.  The big girls were at Awana so we just took Maddy.

 

This year we went on the Sullivan's Express train ride to the North pole.  It was a fun time and the girls got to visit with Santa.

We got a lot of snow and this girl loved playing in it and helping Daddy shovel.

Our annual trip to Reynolds Farm Equipment to sit on Santa's lap.



Another matching sister's pic before church.

The cousins after church...minus Emery who didn't want to join in.

 We've been having lots of fun and look forward to more fun and memories over Christmas break!