A Wonderful Season of Life

What a season in which we find ourselves. The Bratvold side of the family really multiplied this year!
Last Christmas my parents had 1 grandchild.
This year they have 4 grandchildren!

I had Zeke in 2011 and my sister had not one, but two darling girls in August! John and Kari came to Missouri from Portland in November, then Kari was able to stay all through December! John came back at the end of December and we all had a family Christmas and rang in the New Year together! Ok, so only John, Kari, Logan and I were up to ring in the New Year.

Christmas was at our house for both sides of the family! I completely went overboard and did 3 trees, 3 wreaths, 2 chandeliers, and a staircase. I loved doing it though!

We had a great time together, made many of memories, and my sister took a TON of pictures. Literally. Like 700 or something crazy like that.

Don't worry, I won't post them all! But maybe. Here we go!

My Aunt Gail, "Gigi", was able to come up from Florida to spend a week with us. Thanks to Jerry for sparing her! We missed him and Cameron too.

Zeke needed lots of help opening his presents.

 In fact usually eating the wrapping paper was much more entertaining than any gift!

I just think Liam looks so big here! Isn't he such a big boy?!

Sisters!

A framed print of Kari's two little sisters sitting on our boots (awwwww)

Matching sister jammies...what?! Oh c'mon, you know it's still cute.

Three generations of sisters:

My gift to myself.  Logan's gift to me:

Throws that totally match our house!

Speaking of matching my house, my Mom completely outdid herself and made me adorable oven mitts and potholders.  Love.

Theeee coolest present of the day was to Logan from my parents.  

They wrapped up a big box of their old (and now valuable) LP's.

First came albums of bands that Logan had only vaguely heard of.

Then he thought maybe this was a joke, or really a gift for me, when Barbra Streisand and Dionne Warwick were in there!


Hope started to rise when Logan pulled out John Denver.

Woah, wait a minute.

Bob Dylan?  For Real?

Wait Logan, it gets better...

The Beatles!  An original A Hard Day's Night album!

The records kept coming out of that box like Mary Poppins' bag.

Logan spent much of the afternoon examining these albums and looking them up online.  What a neat gift.  We will treasure this collection!

Christmas was a great time with family, but the guys were completely wiped out!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a Good Night.