Christmas 2016

Lasley Family, 2016

Since Guy didn't get very many vacation days, and we're taking the bulk of them in January for our race and cruise we ended up staying home for Christmas. We were both a little sad to not be able to see family over the holidays but it was nice to be together and establish some of our own traditions. I think it also helped us draw closer together as well. We were able to FaceTime with some family which also helped. We kept Christmas small and simple this year. On Christmas Eve we spent time outside (avoiding the rain), made homemade pizza and watched a Christmas movie on Netflix.

On Christmas, we opened stockings before we went to church. For stocking stuffers: I picked up a few blue-rays, (when they were on sale black Friday...yay for deals!) toothbrushes and chapstick.

Stockings!

Allison opening her stocking

Finn got: a toothbrush kit, greenie dental chews, a bully stick braided, and a stuffed monkey

Finn Christmas morning

Finn and his gifts

Chewing on his Antler

Playing ball with Dad

We then went to church. Our church had a one hour service. A few members of the congregation talked about their favorite Christmas hymn. After they finished we sang the hymn. It was simple and eloquent. After church we came home and opened presents. Some of the highlights were: new games/puzzles, ornaments, wall sign, afghan rug, nerf gun, clothes, knife, cookware, etc.

IP gave all the salaried employees a free ham for Christmas. So I made the traditional Christmas dinner. We had ham, green beans, mashed potatoes, cranberry relish, rolls and pie for dessert. We also snacked on chocolate covered pretzel rods.

Guy's big Christmas gift was an RC car. He's been looking at one for a while. This one he can tinker with and instal different parts/features if he wants. Finn is still getting use to it. I've included the video of Finn and Guy playing as well.

Guy's RC car

Decorating the Christmas Tree

On Friday, Guy and I picked up our Christmas tree. We choose a smaller tree since we don't have very many ornaments. Our tree was a fraiser fir. We picked it up from Home Depot. This afternoon we decorated it with the lights and ornaments. We haven't gotten a tree topper yet but we're hoping to get that closer to Christmas. It rained most of this weekend and we went to the temple over the weekend so we weren't able to get the outside lights up yet. We're hoping we can finish them Monday if the rain stops. Otherwise, we'll have to wait until next weekend. 

Putting the lights on

Finn and I adding an ornament

We made Finn an ornament

Finn's ornament. It's his paw print saying his name and the year

Ward Christmas Party

On Friday our Ward had it's annual Christmas party. About 100 people showed up which was about 50 less than we had last year. Dinner was potluck style with the ward providing ham and potatoes and the members bringing everything else. As a ward we sang the 12 days of Christmas with each table singing a different verse of the song. The primary kids sang several different songs and all dressed up as different parts of the nativity. They signed in ASL the song "Away in a Manger." At the end of the night Santa made an appearance

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Picture Update

Guy took the Monday after Thanksgiving off. Finn and I love having Guy home but it throws our routine a little off. Finn thinks that when Dad is home all we do is play (kind of true...). Here are a few pictures showing Guy and Finn playing.

Secret Agent Finn

Playing Chase in the yard

Thanksgiving

We stayed in Paris for Thanksgiving this year. We had Thanksgiving dinner at the church with several other families. It was a lot of fun we did a potluck style meal and then played pictionary using the first line of Christmas songs. We also played bunko after the meal. One of the families in the ward started the activity since they don't have any family close by. It was fun to be able to go and participate with everyone. Later that night Guy and several of his coworkers went to the mill manager's  (Pete) home for dessert. I opted out of the activity because I wasn't feeling to well. Turns out I ended up with food poisoning. Not so fun.
On Friday, Guy had the day off and we began putting up some of the indoor Christmas decorations. We're still working on the lights for the outdoors (need a bigger ladder) but we should have them all up soon. Other than that we mostly spent time relaxing and me recovering. We did go black Friday shopping briefly. I wanted to pick up a few movies/stuff for our stockings. I picked up Finding Dory and The Martian. Cheap movies are my favorite thing to buy on black Friday.
On Saturday, Guy's brother Sam and his family came to visit. They were in McKinney (1.5 hours from us) to celebrate Thanksgiving with Amber's family. They stopped by and toured the house and had lunch with us.  We enjoyed spending time with family over the holidays.