Family Pictures

The Johnson Clan had family pictures around the new house on Christmas Eve. They turned out great!

I love these people so much.

You'll notice that Elliot managed to step on some cactus right before pictures and is doing weird stuff with his foot in most of the pictures. 

Felix earned himself an outfit change after the first picture. 

Staring at Felix per usual

Grandkids shot. Doesn't Mimi's hair look great?

This one is an instant classic. I still can't believe we convinced her to hold the ax "just for one picture mom pleeeeease"

Our classic sibling head stack pose

Feeling jazzy

I was not surprised by Elliot's reaction to the "Thumbs up, everyone!" instructions

The goofy ones are my favorite. 

WIDE.

The bros were very willing to climb in the tree, and we had to use all our powers of persuasion to convince the kids that there was not enough room for them to join their uncles

FELIX

Lil' Zicko is our energetic, mischievous goofball these days. 

Lately he's been pretending to be a wolf. He comes up to me with his hands cupped and says "here's some more moose meat, mama wolf!" then asks me to put a bowl of water on the ground for him to lap up. 

Annie was predictably the most willing participant of family pictures. She's got a big heart and all the enthusiasm. 

Elliot had less enthusiasm for family pictures. 

There may have been some bribes in place to get this smile out of him. I love this kid's sense of humor.

The Oat with his Mimi. He has said on multiple occasions that Mimi and Grumpa living close by is one of the best parts of his life right now. 

Lil' ol' me

How handsome is this guy

Reindeer Games

We opted to start Christmas morning by opening presents at our house before going over to Mimi and Grumpa's house. The kids woke up at a sane hour and it was nice not having to make the kids wait for a big group to wake up and assemble. We devoured the classic pull-aparts and did a bit of extra gift swapping.

 Max majorly enhanced our Christmas Day celebrations by introducing "Reindeer Games," a series of Christmas themed challenges for three teams captained by the three kids. It was SO FUN.  

First up: Unwrapping boxes with oven mitts on hands

The Shiny Nose Challenge- we put vaseline on our noses then transferred cotton circles from one bowl to another. It took my teammates a while to tell me that the competition used creative means to finish in a crazy short time. I should have thought to use my beard as velcro or breathe in. 

Attempting to stay in the square while marching in time with the music

We were shocked that Isaac was absolutely KILLING it at scooping marshmallows while blindfolded until we realized he was peeking the whole time. 

The challenge was to see how many candles you could blow out while saying "Merry Christmas" as forcefully as possible. Blake blew us away.

Reindeer hooves 

Team streamer pull

The Cup of Cheer- I have no clue how Morgan drank that water so fast. I don't understand the physics of it. 

Max said "the next game will be messy" and Blake IMMEDIATELY stripped his shirt off like he was just waiting for an excuse to do so.

The snow shovel- we had to scoop up flour in a card in our mouths and dump it into a bowl. In the grown-up round, we had to do it in a 3 person relay race. You have to hold your breath to avoid blowing all the flour off your card. We were doing great until one person laughed, and we all ended up covered in flour.

We tied marshmallows to string that went over a rope and down to the challenger's ankles. They had to lift their feet to get the marshmallows to lower down so that they could try to grab them with their mouths.

Blake got so aggressive with this one with no success whatsoever

Annie got all tuckered out and fell asleep by the fireplace at the end of the night

This was one of my favorite Christmas Days that we have ever experienced!

We got to hang out for one more day after Christmas. The big hit of the year was a cardboard construction kit. The kids made quite the elaborate fort that eventually included multiple rooms with connecting tunnels. Isaac swears that food tastes better in the fort and opted to eat his dinner there by himself a few times. 

The Bloods Stink at Christmas

Much to Aaron's dismay, I started setting up the tree while people were still in town on the day after Thanksgiving. 

 

Babies and twinkling lights <3

How cute is this winter baby?!?

Annie was a total Christmas Elf in both fashion and willingness to help set up the tree

Celery arm is still going strong

Mimi was a powerhouse at the interfaith Creche Festival this year! We got to pitch in helping sand and stain lots of display stands. Mom lured me over to help in the evening by letting me talk her and Breezy's ears off about my predictions for the soon-to-be-released Stormlight Archive #5 book. It was a beautiful event!

To cap off a great night, I got to hear my mama sing "In the Bleak Midwinter."

Next up was our ward Christmas party, featuring a yummy dinner, cookie decorations, games, and a Santa photo op. 

Isaac hugs everyone these days. I'm honestly surprised he wasn't trying to smooch Santa as well. 

Then the Johnsons started trickling into town! Blake, Clio, Max, and Morgan stayed at my Parent's house and Aunt Trisha stayed with us. Blake was here for about a week before the rest of the people rolled in. We had many great jam sessions, with the most memorable being when he and Breezy wrote a lovely song called "The Bloods Stink at Christmas."

Hot tubbing and polar plunging were frequent activities over the break! Blake won the contest of least audible reaction to the cold. The rest of us whimpered. 

Mimi reading the kids "The Mitton." Annie is pondering how any fabric could stretch enough to fit a bear. 

 

The kids always love exploring the Town Hall lights in the evenings. Isaac thought that this big walk-in ornament was a Liahona. 

Elliot is perfecting the art of the lounge

The dads catching a little siesta

The lad being cute when he was supposed to be taking a siesta. I thought that napping under the tree was a cute idea, but the lights were too fascinating so we had to relocate him. 

Isaac and Trisha hit it off this year

Christmas Eve Fondue! This picture features Blake being #1, Papa doing an interesting dance move, Morgan growing a hand out of her head, and Elliot being a bowl of cheese. 

Papa loved having some baby bonding time

Elliot treated us to a shadowbox nativity play with Mimi narrating 

We ended Christmas Eve with a sing-a-long with Blake on guitar, me on viola, and Breezy on her new autoharp until she got tired of Blake making her memorize his altered chord progressions on the fly. 

Kimberly Ann and Annie Kimberly sung their hearts out.