Merry Christmas!

Well, Christmas has come and gone. It's almost depressing after it's over. All the build up and waiting and then in one day it's all over.

We stayed in town for Christmas, and in fact, had Christmas dinner at our house! We didn't have to travel anywhere!

Christmas morning, we have a tradition of the kids getting their stockings first. But they can't get or see them until everyone is up. They are really good about this and they don't usually sneak!  The wait patiently for everyone to come downstairs. Then we all go and get our stockings, and then we have a yummy breakfast of cinnamon and orange rolls, eggs, bacon, and orange juice.  After than we go and open presents.

There were lots of hugs going around this year and it was nice!

See?

Brothers and Sisters can get along and love each other!

Hannah got a hug from Jacob for getting him some Stink Fart Bags that he was so excited to use (which he did later on and it was stinky!! It got up into the heating system and blew it all over the house!)

Daddy got a 70 minute foot reflexology massage from Mommy (that she had done and totally LOVED it!).  Marissa got an mp3 player and she was so happy to get rid of the plastic $10 one she has been using.  Meghan got a Webkinz that she played all Christmas day, and a nice bag/purse and some Aeropostale clothes, Jacob got a nice 4 wheeled scooter that dad wants to use, Mommy got some clothes and a nice poem book from her dad with all the peoms he's written over the years, and Hannah got lots of pet shop and polly pocket toys.  It was a good Christmas!

No, that isn't Mr. Coffee (behind Jacob). It's the yummy Cocomotion made by Mr. Coffee that makes hot chocolate. It's yummy!

Then we had to hurry up and clean up the house to get ready to have 25 people over (It was going to be 33 but Cherie (Doug's sis) had sickness in her family so she didn't come for Christmas Day).  Shelley had a good idea of putting all the kids out in the garage, so Doug had to clean up the garage to get it ready.  Inside, Shelley got the 'adult' table ready with real CHINA (from China) and it was all very nice.

The girls were at one computer.....

The boys were at another computer...

Grandma Petersen was able to come and we love her so very much and glad to have her there!

Fast forward two days....... 

Saturday night, we had another family get together and Cherie was there now, where we had our traditional white elephant gift exchange and the Gwilliam Kids's Famous Auction. 

Lynnette giving a nice pose.

The Gwilliam Kids Famous Auction has been happening for over 36 years now and is limited to only the Gwilliam Kids - Doug, Lynnette, Cherie and Adam.  They basically gather up stuff they no longer want and give it away to each other.  For the past few years, Cherie has always given the 'must have item' of the year and although many try to top her, nobody has been able to.  At the last auction, her famous item she gave away was a Fleet Enema for Kids! (Doug got it and held onto it and gave it away this year).

The auction always provides for lots of laughs and fun times for all!  Everyone else sits around and watches:

Cherie didn't disappoint this year either!  She once again, came up with the 'must have item' which was a game called "GigglePants" and it came with real 'giggly underwear' to be used during the play of the game. It gave everyone giggles, that's for sure! Adam was the lucky 'winner' of it! 

Adam was on a roll - he also got a Bob The Builder cake pan!  Word has it that he is going to make a Bob The Builder cake for dessert at our next family dinner.

 

Meghan was seen trying to show Grandma Gwilliam how to use Facebook.  Grandma was also seen wanting to learn about and play guitar hero.

 

We even had a piñata that got totally destroyed and the boys fought over all the candy.

All in all, it was a good time to be had for all! 

P.S. Cherie, you have a lot to live up to at the next auction! You have set the standards high!

 

Christmas Break - No School - All Play!

Since it's Christmas Break, the kids are all home for two weeks! That means they have to find ways to entertain themselves, and sometimes that means doing stuff that Mom and Dad don't know about!

This first one is Jacob trying to be hidden from the camera. See how well he stays hid:

 

Here Marissa is practicing her pitching skills INSIDE the house!  She really throws the ball hard against the door!  Naughty girl!

 

This one Jacob invented and he calls it 'Couch Flipping'. As you can see, he is the best at it, and Hannah is still trying to perfect her couch flipping skills.

Happy Birthday Marissa!

So this week was Marissa's Birthday, turning the ripe old age of 14 on the 15th.  We first went to dinner at Buca di Beppo's but forgot the camera. We then went over to Grandma and Grandpa Gwilliam's house to share Marissa's birthday cheesecake, since we couldn't eat it all!

 

Meghan lit the candles......

 

Marissa made her wish and blew the candles out...

 

Even Grandma and Grandpa's new dog, Louie, was happy for Marissa's birthday, showing off by standing on his back legs and hopping around.

 

While at Grandma and Grandpa's, Meghan told them about her dance class at school and how they are on clogging right now, and Meghan is the only one in the class that knows how to do it, and she is even better than the teacher!  All those clogging classes so long ago are finally paying off!  Meghan showed some of her steps the best she could in her non-clogging shoes, and I had to secretly video her, but she finally found out at the end of her dance.

 

We then went home and Marissa opened up her presents.

 

I think this next photo was what happened when Marissa realized she was no longer a 'baby' and was now grown up enough that she could go to dances now since she is 14!  She said something like, "I am so old now, I don't have to wear diapers anymore! See???" and then proceeded to show us:

 

Then it was time to open presents: Here are just two of them: (Some of you may be wondering about the way she is acting in these videos. Nothing to be concerned about. She is always 'happy' like this!)

 

Earlier that day, Hannah wanted to prepare a special dance for Marissa. She she got out her Cinderella Dancing Lesson dvd and mat and practiced:

 

And here was Hannah's special dance for Marissa:

 

And of course, after family prayer, was the event Marissa was most looking forward to!  Do you remember our tradition?  Yep! The spanking tunnel!  We had to do my (Doug) spanking tunnel too, since my birthday was when we were in San Diego last month, and we didn't do it.  Bur unfortunately, the camera was out of battery or something like that during my spanking tunnel, but luckily, it was working for Marissa's spanking tunnel:

We love you Marissa! Happy Birthday!

Cyclops

So about two months ago, a spot appeared on Jacob's eye.  It never went away.  Jacob went to the eye doctor and they didn't know what it was, and said they wanted to watch it (an eye doctor 'watching' an eye - doesn't that seem funny?) for about a month or so to see if it changed. They even thought they may have to do a biopsy to see what it was.

Well, the 'watching' period was over this week, and Jacob went back to the eye doctor. They have a new fancy schmancy camera now that can take photos of your eye and the computer can see through them in 3D.  So they took one of Jacob's eye.

It was finally determined that Jacob had a freckle on his eye from being out in the sun too much without sunglasses.  Huh? You haven't heard that one before? Neither had we. 

So nothing wrong, just a freckle in his eye.  Here is the pic: