Tis the season- more Christmas parties and holiday concerts. We're getting there though. Here are some quick photos:

Rachel and Lindsey went on a date to see a Christmas concert

Every year, Rachel sets up a couple of days of bell ringing with the Salvation Army. She always takes a kid, and they usually have a good time.

Our church always does this Christmas pageant thing, and it's one of those things where we can tell how our kids have grown up. There were the years when they were the sheep, the angels, the animals, the shepherds, and even the star itself. Well, this year, none of them actually qualify as "kids" anymore, and their participation was more in the accompaniment section- Maren and Lindsey sang, and Addy with her saxaphone was part of a quintet of players.

Santa Cruise!

You can tell how warm it has been around here considering Lindsey's outfit on an evening cruise on the lake.

Ev and Josh were inadvertently "matchy"

Maren and Lindsey had choir concerts

Lindsey in the middle

Maren in the middle (top)

Work party!

Girl party!

Look at all this good unfrozen snow, wreaking our roads and making a mess. Ugh. Why can't it just stay on the ski hill like nature intended?

What a great week we have had! The ski resort opened, we went and played in the snow, the long string of Christmas parties is underway, and the future looks bright in so many ways. Here are some photos. Enjoy the season, and Have A Good Week!

These are pictures of the Christmas party at the church. Big chili cookoff and tons of food. We also had our annual viewing of Better off Dead afterwards.

Playing in the snow is so fun!

Of course it's also about the together time. Things just vibe on these days.

And of course the little contest. Evelyn and her friends did the Titanic, and it won by a landslide according to our official polls. 

The other three were almost evenly tied for second place, which was a little bit of a surprise to me that there wasn't more stratification than that. Here's the candy land, with Addy, Maren, and their friends.

Lindsey and crew did the Minecraft creation

And Team Jack did the house. Nice work to everyone- I think we had a really good batch this year.

It's that time again- Gingerbread house contest! I'm going to put all the photos at the bottom, so if you are here for that, just scroll all the way down.

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It has been a wonderful Thanksgiving break for us! And it's going to be a photos with captions kind of post. Here we go!

We celebrated the day with Marissa and Wesley's family at our house. Food, conversation, and games. Pretty chill day.

Well...mostly chill. This is that time that Evelyn unexpectedly threw a pie in Addy's face. That happened.

And this is when we went to Higgin's Point to watch the Eagles. Every year there are thousands of dead kokanee salmon that wash up on shore after spawning, attracting hundreds of bald eagles to the area for the feast. It can get pretty cool to watch.

Ev has always wanted to watch a sunrise over the lake. She gathered a group of her friends who she convinced to wake up early and go on a hike with her. 

This was the reward. We live in such a beautiful area.

First day of skiing!    ...ish
Silver was playing with our emotions all week. They were going to open! Nope. Yes! JK- No. Ye..No? The night before- a definite No. The morning of...It's a go! On the bunny hill. Just the bunny hill. But hey, it's sliding on snow. 

It's nice to be out again

The joys of helmet hair

And the joys of Silver Mountain Pizza

We actually made a whole day out of the skiing. Kellogg was doing a big tree lighting ceremony thing with fireworks, and then we went out to a nice dinner, and then up to watch a Warren Miller film with a big group of skiers, and Maren won some ski tickets in a raffle, and then we went to the Wallace House to spend the night. We all agreed that it was a really, really good day.

This was kind of a cool thing. Syringa (the office I work at) is building a new location and we had the ribbon cutting ceremony with the Chamber of Commerce and stuff. It's happening!

These were really big scissors.

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And now for the gingerbread houses! Please vote for your favorite. Put it in the comments of the blog or somewhere on social media where we'll see it. Or call us or text us. Anything really. We do this every year and it establishes bragging rights for the next 12 months. I think we have some really good options this year to choose from.

First, we have The Titanic. 

That's Jack and Rose. And a shark.

Next up: Travel-The-World Candy-Land, featuring Big Ben, the Eiffel Tower, the Pyramids of Giza, and Stonehenge

Next: The traditionalist and the only actual Gingerbread House, but pretty elaborate. Especially the roof with icicles.

And finally, we have Minecraft. This one is kind of conceptual, as there is a world that was built under the world on top, which I guess is a Minecraft thing?

So there you have it. Teams will be revealed next week after the votes are in. 

Have a good week!