Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve - after playing in the snow we decided to let the kids open a set of gifts. These gifts were picked out by Bill and he was most excited about the inflatable Godzilla. 

The girls each received a Jurassic World mask - so not cute!

The next pictures show Bill in the background BEYOND pleased with himself. 

Nothing says Merry Christmas like a blow up Godzilla costume. 

Winter Wonderland

Sledding in our backyard over the past few days has been great entertainment for the kids. 

Despite being on call, Bill got home in the early afternoon on Christmas Eve and built a jump for the kids. 

Claire hitting the jump - see the air?

they pick up speed post jump and go flying into the fence. 

Ellie's turn didn't hit it straight on - so she flipped.

Christmas break & Christmas Eve fun! 

The Oaks Christmas Concert

The Oaks hosted their annual Christmas Concert at the Fox Theatre. The venue is a donation by a family and it is beautiful! 

Ellie waiting for it to start!

Claire

Charlie is right in the middle! Can you find him?

The entire school.

The teachers sing a song and it was fabulous. Charlie's teacher - Mrs. Holland is in the Red shorter sweater dress.  

IRS Christmas Miracle

The year we were in NZ was 2013. We have been dealing with the IRS over our 2013 taxes for 2 years now. I cannot tell you the number of hours I have spent on the phone dealing with this or the hours collecting more documents to detail out what we had already given them. I finally found a Tax Advocate service that really helped expedite the process. It still took about 7-8 months, but after resending all of our info to the IRS again in Sept we received a letter at the end of November saying we wouldn't hear anything until the middle of January (this is how the IRS works by the way - in 8-10 week blocks). 

Imagine my surprise when 5 days after I received the "sorry - no response expected until jan" letter i saw in the stack of Christmas cards a US treasury. GASP!! Could it really be here!?!? 

I opened it up and squealed! Sweet to finally have our return (probably our last), but also just to be DONE with this! 

Bill proclaimed it was a Christmas Miracle and he is probably right. WAHOO!

early ornament gifties

We were out for a special Christmas Saturday downtown where Charlie had a birthday party and Bill and I switched girls for special dates. It was great. While there I saw some ornaments that I couldn't pass up. 

The kids lined up for their ornaments. Ellie and Claire are wearing their new outfits they picked out during Bill's portion of the special date (during my special time we painted pottery).  

Charlie and Claire

Ellie and Claire got Mermaids - because I have drawn more mermaids in 2015 than in any other year of my life.

Ellie and her mermaid (which she promptly dropped and the tail fell off. Had to do some minor repairs.

Charlie got a soccer player!

Let the fun times begin!