Some Christmas Break Highlights

Our Christmases keep changing.  We have navigated the mission era over the past few years, and now we are getting deeper into the young adult and newly married phase. I was so excited that we were all going to be together for the week Brinley and Derek were coming home, but the reality was sometimes my people had other plans. We still managed to hang out all together a lot of the time.

Parker made last minute plans during that week to go to the ranch with his buddies on the same day Brinley and Derek were flying in. What? I was a frustrated momma, but I also knew Parker would not be happy staying home. He had a fun couple of days at the ranch and was thoughtful enough to catch a ride home a day early.  He was able to be a part of our Christmas church service, cousin gift exchange and Sunday night gathering and that made me better overall.

Parker, Cole, Reese, Ashton, Cade, Kendyn, Harper, Austin, Luke (front)

While he was at the ranch, we went to a hockey game on Friday night, played pickleball with the Birds Saturday morning and went to Wicked at the theaters that afternoon. Fun times! 

Back to young adult kids, Aubrey missed the hockey game and a couple of other activities due to her job. Tanner and fam joined when they could, but it all worked out. It's our current stage of life, and I realize it's only going to get trickier to be all together. We will just make memories along the way.

Over the week we played some games, looked at Christmas lights and handed out awards, went bowling, worked in the yard, watched The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, did an escape room, played volleyball, played lots of ping pong, and hung out with extended family.

Here are some picts and a few more details about the happenings.

Most of our Christmas decorating happened in a whirlwind the weekend before Thanksgiving due to Aubrey's encouragement and help. Then it came to a grounding halt. Decorating isn't my forte, and it's a lot of work. Plus, I have recently started working 2-3 days a week helping care for my mom, and I'm treading water a bit keeping up with everything else. 

Luckily a few weeks later with a few days to spare, Kaide's interest in the box of ornaments still sitting by the tree gave me the push to actually put them on the tree.  Otherwise, we were going all natural this year.

We fit in a few Taco Villa Mondays on Wednesdays with Grandpa and family.

Font left: Courtney w/ Olivia, me (Erin Gwilliam), Brian, Parker, Adam Front right: Kerry, Aubrey, Britney, Braddock, Grandpa, Ang & Chris

Kerry had a finger accident at his ranch and had to get stitches on several fingers. They had empathy pains for each other.

Lots of games card/board were played: Speed, Skull King, Dominion, Ransom Notes, and Tapple 

Kaide was pretty sure he needed to play Speed as well. He always won, of course.

Ransom notes was Hilarious. You just never knew what crazy lines people were going to put on their magnet plate.

I purchased an escape room off of Etsy and one night these three spent a good 45 minutes deciphering the clues.  It was fun to watch them working together.  

Just for the record, the escape room game file cost about $15 on Etsy and then I spent about $17 printing-ugh-because our color printer wasn't working. I wish I would have printed at my parents' house instead.

Lots of ping pong was played at home and at the Birds.

We found a deal at the bowling alley and took advantage.  If we bowled between 11-2 and spent $10 per person at the snack bar, then we were given a free game of bowling and free shoes. Woot woot!  

A couple of days before Christmas, we worked in the yard for an hour or two raking up leaves. (Minus Aubrey who spent the night with Lauron and then had work...she was very happy to miss out.)

Derek and Brinley really enjoyed the Carlsbad Caverns National Park outing.  It's a couple of hours away.  I was planning on going, but after the business of all things Christmas, it was nice to just stay home.

Erin's birthday is December 24th.  She is the sweetest, and always makes us feel special on our birthdays. She is a very thoughtful gift giver. We didn't want her big day to get lost amidst all of the Christmas Eve events, so we surprised her that morning before all of the family gatherings happened.  

On the 23rd, we had our sibling gift exchange with my siblings and Dad, and the cousins got together for volleyball at the church.

Our sibling gathering was pretty chill.  Britney put in so much work with dinner and fun games, and I think she was a little disappointed with how it turned out.  Beck and Brian don't come down for Christmas, Quetta had to work and Nate and Beth had some last minute medical concerns and stayed in Dallas.  It was a small group, but I think it was still a lot of fun.

Sunday night gathering...I love seeing all of these young adult cousins together.

We were disappointed that Parker couldn't get his ACL/Meniscus surgery before Christmas.  We were hoping it would be on the 23rd but all of the openings were filled.  Also, the doctor knew his ACL was fully torn and his MCL and LCL were partially torn. However, he did not know his meniscus was fully torn so the recovery is longer. He can't put any weight on his leg for six weeks. Parker is bummed but taking it like a champ. He changed his classes to online and won't be headed up to BYUI until mid February.

We wrapped up our holidays with a dinner and a fun game night with the Vores.  Aubrey and I were the two representatives for the Gwilliams. Bri stayed home with Park, and Tanner and EFG had plans with friends.  

The Vores moved the party to Gram and Grandpa Vore's so Grandpa could participate while Gram slept. Ang's parents came as well. Jeff, who served his mission in Taiwan, made delicious, authentic Chinese food. He did Americanize it some so we would enjoy it more. I loved it, and I am a somewhat picky eater.

Erin Vore Freeman, not to be confused with Erin Flores Gwilliam or Erin Vore Gwilliam, planned the games.  It was set up in a game show style with prizes for each round.  She was so cute in her excitement and energy, and she even had game show music playing as she announced each round.

I will just mention the final round with the biggest prize because I won it! Woot woot! We had to hold our arms out to the side without letting them fall. There were three previous winners who couldn't win this challenge because they had already won gifts in other rounds, but they could participate if they wanted.  We had to hold our arms out to the side for as long as possible and the winner got $100.  

I just kept channeling my inner Survivor TV show strength: mind over body.  Ang had already won something but competed anyway.  After 10 minutes, we were the only two standing and called it good.  My niece Lauron was the 3rd runner up and pretty disappointed so I actually just gave her the $100.

I'm grateful for extended breaks that allow for lots of family time. We had a nice Christmas vacation.