Friday, January 6, 2017

Holiday recap!

 What can I say about the holidays, other than they were great!  We were blessed with lots of relaxing time together with our small family as well as lots of crazy time with our large, extended family!  We did some face swapping (results are horrifying to be sure!)...

 There was plenty of time for projects, like Sam's dino tail/hat.
 We kicked off the winter break from school with the "Illumination" event at Morton Arboretum with my parents.  It was a late night, but beautiful!



 Dinner out at the mall after shopping, Mike got into the spirit with a holiday shirt we gave him!
 Christmas Eve with the Rodriguez/Mioni/Klein crew.  Xavier LOVES his green beans!
 The boys, as usual, were spoiled rotten by the relatives!
 Christmas morning at the Hewes house!
Candy Canes at 8am?  Why not!

 Noah loved his Griffindor scarf from Santa!
 Sam enjoyed his new gloves!
 The Monday after Christmas was the day of the Benhart cookoff/game night.  I brought a "drinking" game to play with the kids.  It was "can you guess the beverage" with choices like pineapple juice or lemon juice.  Hilarious!
 We agreed, Adeline's "Grandma B's Lasagna" dish was a winner!
 My cousins Dan and Brian had created an official Family Feud game, complete with working buzzers!
 The outlaw team huddles together!
 The next couple days were spent crafting and playing together with the cousins.  My kids are so lucky to have so many helpful, older cousins!

We also hit the pool at the hotel where the adults were staying!
 And celebrated some December/January birthdays!
Of course we had to go see the new Star Wars too!

 And we joined in some reindeer games!


 While the tablecloth graffiti was an unplanned activity, it turned out to be awesome!
 After a whirlwind of 4 nights away from home, we returned on Wednesday to finally enjoy all the awesome gifts!
 The highlight of Noah's week was his new Skylanders Imaginators game!
 Sam and I tested out the new Wet Head game.  Santa must be a real hoot, giving us this one!
 Long story short, it works...I lost!
 Isaac will tell you his favorite thing is his new gumball machine from Bamma!
 Sam enjoyed lounging in his PJs most days, snuggled up in whatever spot he found cozy!
 This week has brought the return to school for the boys (I have another week off!).  We are so wiped out that we can nap even with the sun shining right on our faces!  Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!  On to 2017!!!