Holiday Happenings....

This year for Thanksgiving Russel was on-call so we invited everyone up to our house.  Jared and Tammie ended up doing dinner with her siblings which was a new things to us.  We usually never have to fight for them since her parents are in New Hampshire.  So while we weren't complete in having everyone with us, Russel's mom joined us as well as the rest of my family and we had a wonderful day.  This year was MUCH better in the food department for me than last year.  I got to eat REAL mashed potatoes (none of that cauliflower yuck) and we tried some new recipes that got rave reviews.  The cornbread stuffing was a major hit with Russel and my gravy rocked the socks off of everyone (that's definitely a keeper recipe).  And we even had an amazing lemon pie on a gluten free crust that was the favorite of many.   Now don't feel too sorry for the rest of the family, there was plenty of glutenized menu items to choose from.  Sadly we weren't too great at taking pictures or actually even getting the camera out.

The day after Thanksgiving, we had our annual Letters To Santa party at my sister's.  It was a great night with lots of fun for the kids.  Gina made wonderful nontraditional homemade hot cocoa with lots of fixings to mix in.  And of course we had a very special visitor show up.  Meili even sat on his lap this year with no tears.  Of course, she wasn't thrilled but the need for the candy cane won out.  The funny of the night was J.D.  For Christmas this year, the kids decided that they would donate their Christmas to China....Meili's friends.  We told the kids we would still do stockings and they could ask for one gift that was around $60.  So J.D. climbed up on Santa's lap and read his letter to him.....that was very sweet.  He had written that he wanted Santa to help the kids in China because they needed a lot of help this year. So Santa then asked J.D. if there was anything else he could get for him, J.D. said "yes!! anything that's $60!).   We laughed and laughed.  It was a great party and it's always fun to catch up with my brother-in-law's side of the family.  It's a great tradition.  Thank you Gina and Matt.

One of our favorite traditions, beside the Letters to Santa party, is the making of gingerbread houses.  As the kids have gotten older, we've been able to conquer more than one gingerbread house and also let them do their own thing.  Well this year was a very independent year to say the least.  We decided to do them for FHE one night.....the only problem?  I was frantically getting ready for Russel's work party the next day with many things to cook and many gift bags to put together.  It was a little crazy.  I grouped the kids up in teams and told them to use their imaginations and then when they finished, I would judge the houses and give out awards.  I guess the first BIG mistake was handing it over to them with no adult supervision.  In fact, I even debated whether I should post these pictures or not.....but Abi clearly pointed out it was something we would not want to forget (or at least she thought).  So, just keep in mind, it's better not to judge.......my kids really are pretty sweet.  See if you can guess which one Meili and Abi made? 

Shortly before Christmas, we had our McKenna Family Christmas Party.  We decided to do a brunch and had our party in the morning at the USU LDS Institute.  It was so much fun to see everyone and we missed those that couldn't make it.  The kids had a great time and put on a wonderful talent show....with Quinn definitely taking the prize, playing a beautiful rendition of "The Lone Wolf" on an international recorder. His counting was suberb and he was so methodical about how he played each and every note.  It was actually quite hilarious.  The food was amazing and we had our traditional white elephant exchange.  I'm trying to track down some pictures from other family members as we were lame and didn't take any....so hopefully eventually there will be some photos of this awesome event.