The hustle and bustle of Christmas

Whew! So much happened in December. We decided to make a trip back to Oregon for the holidays and we enjoyed the time we had to spend with family. It was great to get to spend lots of time with John and Jenn (sadly, we don't get to see them enough) but all the kids loved being able to play the wii and ds with Uncle John.

There were lots of moments like this...

Christmas Eve was up in Washougal Washington at Gram Schnieder's...well not at her house though. With close to 80 of us there this year we had the party at the local LDS church building. It was great to see Aaron's family and relatives.

AJ and Stephie
Some of the crowd
Momma Packard made three of these and I made one...I'm so Proud!!! They were center pieces for the tables

At the party we listened to Gram's favorite Christmas story...saw a video of memories of all the Christmas Eve parties of the past and then were able to see many talents shared by all the families. There was even an appearance made by Santa.

It was a great night!
Christmas morning was a big hit for the grand kids...It was hands down the most chaotic Christmas morning in the history of May family Christmas's
Benny joined us too all the way from Korea
Gifts were enjoyed by all followed by some yummy eggnog french toast.

Then we headed over to the Aaron's parents to have brunch and then more gifts...
Thanks to all for the gifts and for the time we got to spend with you. It was great to see everyone.

After all the busyness and playing with all the fun gifts we received we packed up the car Monday morning (Can I just mention Aaron is a genius when it comes to packing, If I had done it, we would not have gotten everything home!) and we headed out to see Aaron's parents for about an hour and then on to Washougal for one more visit with Gram. We got there and spent a bit of time then really hit the road at about 6:30pm. We needed to head down the road and cross over the bridge to get back on the Oregon side of the gorge to head on home. As we were driving along, Aaron started to say something was going on with the car. It was decelerating and just as we made the turn to head onto The Bridge of the Gods the car died on us and wouldn't start again. Fortunately we weren't on the bridge yet and there was an area to park cars just off the road. The other thing we are grateful for is Dean. You are the Best. He came with friends and towed us back to Mulino and then helped us to figure out the problem...it ended up being a little screw in the distributor that had gotten loose and was messing up the timing. Tuesday just a little after noon....We were on the road again but this time it was snowing. We had no more car troubles but there was nothing good to be said about the weather. It took us all night to get to Pendleton were we stopped. And then 10pm the next night is when we got home. Quite the trip. Glad we came....Glad to be home. :)
At home Christmas hadn't come and the kids kept asking about it and wondering how Santa would know to come. We miraculously he came on the right night :)
The kids woke up to there own Christmas morning and enjoyed the games, goggles and other fun gifts.We enjoyed all the Christmas memories made this year and look forward to all the new ones to be made in years to come.

Christmas 2009