Tis the season!

I absolutely LOVE this time of year!! We are so incredibly blessed to have such wonderful family and friends to share in the joys of the season. Boy have these past few weeks been as busy as ever (and there are still many parties to be had yet!). Here's what we've been up to:

We started off the Christmas party season with our annual friends party. We hosted this year and, as always, had a great time. The kids sure are growing fast. Here's my attempt at a picture of all of them (Isaac wasn't too thrilled of the idea of a picture):

Brooke (1), Grant (3 1/2), Isaac (3 1/2), Cole (20 mo.), Hannah (3), Reese (3), Morgan (3 1/2), Grady (18 mo.)

Santa came and visited the group and brought some small gifts. (If you look close enough, you will indeed see that my brave husband donned the Santa suit, borrowed from Dick V.D. at church. You will also notice that the closest thing we had to a Santa bag was a burgundy colored pillow case!). The kids had a blast, and Grant didn't even realize that his daddy wasn't around.
We went to visit Santa (a.k.a. Dick VD from church) a week ago Sunday; although Brooke was not too fond of him this time around.

We had a Christmas party with my mom's extended side last Friday. No pictures of that, though.

This past Sunday was the Christmas program at church. Grant has the same songs/speaking part as last year, because he's still in the 2-3 age group, but he did a much better job actually participating this year instead of just standing up on stage.

Monday night we got together with Eric's immediate family. We had Vitales pizza (yum!), opened gifts, and just enjoyed each other's company. Grant loves to hang out with his cousins, and there is definitely no settling down when they all get together! Love it.

Eric's parents and their grandchildren

Wednesday night was the Petroelje extended get-together. Growing up in a small family, I never experienced parties where we had to rent out a church facility in order to all be together. It is so much fun! It was so nice to be able to see everyone all together, as it doesn't happen too many times during the year. It's great, too, to be in a big gym where the kids can roam, play kick ball and basketball.

I just had to get a picture of the place settings (there were a few families even missing!).
Some of the Petroelje clan (the others were all playing kick ball at the time on the other end of the gym)

We've also been able to experience some "us" time these past few days, too, with both Eric and I being off from school. Eric and Grant went sledding together yesterday down the road on the neighbor's hill.

I just think this picture is so cute (aside from the fact that my husband is decked out in hunting garb - and hasn't gone hunting since his college days)

Also, we took a trip to Crazy Bounce this morning and had a riot! The last time we went Grant wasn't really old enough to enjoy all the bigger slides. However, he went on every one of them this morning (even the shark - which he was vehemently opposed to when we first arrived - he was afraid it was going to eat him!). Thanks Mom and Dad G. for the gift certificate for Halloween so we could enjoy this very cheaply!! :) Here are a few shots of us in action -

Eric and Grant are also in the process of making Christmas cookies, so I will update you on how that turned out in my next post!

With all the "busyness" of the season, may we remember the true meaning of Christmas!

May you all have a very blessed Christmas!