We love Christmas Parties!

We headed down south for a Christmas party weekend last weekend

After my family Christmas party we went to Mark's mom's house for her Christmas party

The enchiladas were amazing as always and I could not stop eating them

I tried to pick a few pictures from the day but a few turned into a lot!

It was a fun day!

Gray loved opening presents

We have to keep her away from the ones under our Christmas tree now

She is ready to open them!

Gray and Vince played this game for a long time!

Gray just wanted to chew on the stick

A box of cookies all to myself

Never a good thing!

And no that isn't my plate of food next to me!

When I ate I sat right by the food so I could keep getting refills without anyone noticing!

Gray even stole other people's presents if they looked appealing!

Gray got a new sleeping bag

Mark wrote his name on his sister's present

So she made him put her sweater on!

I think it looks good!

Gray got some cool stuff

Randi did not want her picture taken!

I even remembered to take a family picture

So I can actually document I was at the party!

Mark's brother Ron drove down from Colorado and surprised every one

Gray got a dog

She was a little excited about it

Gray definitely likes her dad more than me!

It's okay though...that way I get a break every once in awhile!

The good news is I didn't put on too much weight after all the food that I ate!

I think I came out even which is not too bad!

I literally ate all day Saturday. Never stopped

It was glorious!

We love spending time with family!

Thanks for all the great presents!

The first annual James Brown Christmas Party

My brother decided we needed to have a family Christmas party

This year it was all about "festivus"

We had lots of fun even though we had to go to the awful valley to attend the party!

We can't wait for next year

The kids did a candy bar exchange

Gray didn't follow the rules

She sat in the middle of the circle and never passed her candy bar

Liam just wanted to play in the middle of the circle too

I'm glad Gray wasn't the only one not obeying!

We ate delicious soups at our party and had lots of yummy desserts

after that was over we had a white elephant gift exchange

and the airing of grievances

Mark had some last minute grievances against me!

Gray played on this little toy all night long.

She fought the other kids multiple times for it!

Shad airing everyone's grievances

I know it's a crappy picture but it's the only one I got

We had lots of fun and did lots of laughing

I might have ended up with the very worst white elephant gift there

Leave it to me to pick it!

Here comes the gingerbread train!

I love the awesome gingerbread kits you can buy

This year I decided to make a gingerbread train

I was so excited because I just knew Gray would love it

Making these things is a whole new story with a 1 year old

She wanted to eat all the candy!

She was so funny about it

She would act like she was going to put it on then she would eat it

and when one finally did make it on the train her finger would accidentally end up in the frosting

and she would have to lick it off!

Let's just say our finished product wasn't our best yet!

Please ignore my creepy face in this picture!

The finished product!

They look even worse after a few weeks of sitting on the table!

We had fun though and that's all that really matters!

She only likes Santa from a distance!

Gray loves Santa.

She loves to watch shows with Santa

and she points out all of the Santa ornaments on the tree

she points him out in every store we go to and she says "Ho, ho"

We saw Santa at the mall in Flagstaff but when it was our turn next to go see him she was done

so we left

Santa was at the town hall on Saturday

She saw the toys they were giving out before seeing Santa and she kept saying "Toy"

She did not care to sit on Santa's lap

I tried to stand next to her and it didn't work either

see for yourself...

As soon as we left she started talking about Santa again

She likes him from a distance!

Gray did get a dog flashlight that barks

She loves it

After Santa we headed over to watch the light parade

It was FRIGID!

We were all bundled up and still cold

Before the parade started some guy walked by and said there is only 10 floats this year

We were thinking that is about double what we had last year!

At the end of the parade we were glad it wasn't any longer

You can only take the cold for so long!

They had fun I promise!

They were just that into the parade!

Gray was very calm and just watched the whole thing

I think she was also FREEZING!

Poor thing!

and a few of the floats.

We love all the fun things we get to do at Christmastime

we especially love spending time together as a family!

Free vacation? We'll take it!

Mark had a class in Flagstaff this last week

Gray and I had nothing else to do..

so we tagged along!

We got to go swimming and eat lots of good food and do some Christmas shopping

we had lots of fun.

We got to see Mark at lunch and after class every day

way better than not seeing him for a week!

I didn't take a lot of pictures because it was FREEZING cold outside!

So here are a few from the hotel...

I had a lot of time on my hands so I straightened Gray's hair one day

and here are the results...

All bundled up and ready to go outside

Every time we went outside Gray would say "cold"

and she talked about her hat and coat a lot!

Just because she is cute

Gray climbed and climbed all over this couch

The other side had a little wider side to put stuff on 

and Gray thought it was her personal seat

She ate there every day!

We had lots of fun

but we sure are glad to be home

You can only entertain a 1 year old in a hotel room for so long!

It's a Charlie Brown Christmas tree

On Friday afternoon we headed out to find the Brady family Christmas tree

We decided to get a pinon pine this year because there isn't a lot of other kinds of trees

We just had to go out of town a little ways

It was a little windy so we didn't walk around a ton with Gray 

but we still found the perfect Christmas tree

I spotted it and thought it was perfect but there was one problem

It didn't really come to a point on the top

So we took note of it and kept looking

I started calling it my Charlie Brown tree because every one passed it up because it didn't have a point on top

No other tree was as full and pretty 

so we went with the Charlie Brown tree!

Escudilla looked so beautiful all covered in snow I had to take a picture

This is what Gray and I do while mark cuts down the tree

or cuts wood

We just stand back and take pictures!

The tree and Escudilla in the background

I like how my hair is blowing in the wind

I look like a model! haha not really

Now the tree is up in our house all decorated and it is the prettiest tree of all

Just like on Charlie Brown

Too bad I forgot to upload a picture of it

and I am too lazy to find the one I took

So just close your eyes and imagine what is looks like all decorated!

We have lots of sparkly gold and silver ornaments this year!