party of six: family

Decided to ring in the new year at one of our favorite places, Big Bear!! A recent storm left Big Bear with a fresh blanket of snow so we were really excited. I'm not a big fan of freezing my rear off but I still love it up there. NYE was pretty low key since we had the kids. We made tacos and headed to the ski lodge to watch the torch light parade down the mountain. Guess they have skiers and snowboarders carry lit torches down the hill. It was kinda anticlimactic after waiting in the frigid weather. I think it would have been better if we had been watching from the street and not so close. We hung out in the cabin for the rest of the night and watched the countdown to the new year on tv. We toasted the new year with our free bottle of sparkling cider that is left in every cabin. Saturday started with a french toast breakfast and a walk to the village to see a movie. We took pizza home for dinner and then it was night tubing time!! It is so much fun!

Big Bear in the distance!! We had to take another route up there since the main road is closed. It took almost 2 hours and KK got car sick. Blech!

We must have a billion of these shots.

Keeping themselves entertained on the drive up. Drew didn't go with us, of course. He had a NYE party to go to but unfortunately it got cancelled. Instead, he played 3rd wheel to his friend and his girlfriend at our house. They played Scrabble and watched tv. At least that was the version I got. The hubs made sure to count his beers before we left. LOL

Snow!! Kaelyn needed some alone time so she stayed back at the cabin while we took a walk around the property. It's beautiful out there.

Cool icicles. We saw some killer ones on our walk to the village.

The hubby's lame joke-"look, it's a snow cone!!" Groan.

The creek between the cabins and the motel was completely frozen.

Here we are all bundled up to go tubing. I was afraid I wouldn't make it since I froze watching the parade but with tubing you are walking around a lot and it's quite a workout so we were never cold. I kinda felt like little Randy from A Christmas Story.

These next photos are from my new point and shoot. Love this one.

So glad the hubs made me buy this warm hat. There's no way I would have bought myself a $30 beanie.

Trying not to freeze to death waiting for the torch light parade to start.

Texting with bare fingers....no wonder he complained he was cold!!

At this point, I needed a ski mask. But we had a great time!

Once again, we were sad to leave the cabin. We had breakfast at Boo Bear's Den before we made the almost 2 hour trip home. Until next time Big Bear....

Ahhh another Christmas done and over with and a New Year begun. How do the years keep flying by so fast?? Seems like every year goes by faster and faster. And it seems like I say that every year. Sorry for being a broken record. We had a great Christmas in our bigger, roomier house. Yes, we moved in September. It's nice to not be tripping all over each other and having room for all our billion kids and crap.

Here's KK all dolled up for her Christmas chorus performance. It's basically the same performance as the one from the previous week but they get to "dress up" in fancy clothes.

Kids did a good job although the boys looked like they would rather be at the dentist's office getting a cavity filled without novocaine. Naw, they weren't that bad. I just have a flair for dramatics I guess.

I had to work Christmas Eve so the hubs had to make sure everything was ready for Santa. He had Costco chocolate chip cookies and milk set out for him and what do you know, he ate the cookies and drank the milk!! No pics unfortunately. I wasn't going to attempt to make cookies again after last year's miserable batch.

Santa gave the kids little stockings with "coal." HAHAHAHA!! Santa was just being funny this year. They still had their regular stockings filled with all kinds of goodies.

A new beanie and gloves! Perfect for Big Bear.

Some make-up too!

I had to wake up Drew since he probably stayed up half the night waiting for Santa. (actually, he probably was online playing games)

A new car stereo!! Strangely, every box was written in Spanish.

A uDraw pad! I'm hoping to play some Pictionary this weekend.

Drew loves him some new jammies!! Probably because he wears them about 90% of the day. These were not written in Spanish.

This one's a biggie!! What's inside??

New undies!! HAHAHA! The hubs wrapped it in a huge box to throw him off.

A car emergency kit. Lord knows he needs it with his driving skills.

Witness the Christmas miracle-he's helping his sister open her present.

Just what she's been dying for!!

Skates!! I see lots of trips to Roller City.

What could this be??

Dammit, he already knew what it was before he opened it.

Mas Espanol!! It's a pedal for his guitar. I need some new ear plugs.

Can't go without a picture of the Christmas destruction.

Too bad Santa gave him a broken amp. Need to send it back. Or maybe we can just send it back and get something else that's a little more quiet. hehe

Our traditional french toast souffle. Soooo good!!

Not a flattering angle for me. Yeesh.

Talking to Brandon and Hayley. They didn't come over til the 26th and stayed for a week.

Drawing with her new uDraw.

Another Christmas miracle-setting up his sister's new laptop that Santa got her. Santa got a great deal on it during Black Friday.

Wow, I had no idea that I looked that bad getting home from work in the morning.

It's our turn!! What is it??

I was really excited for my make-up remover. Can you tell?

Love how Drew is totally into my moisturizer.

See how interested he is??

Hubby's turn!

I got him one of the books he's been wanting to read-Steven Adler's biography.

Muah!

Whatchu pointing at?

Another book!! This one is from Gary Dell'Abate, one of Howard Stern's sidekicks.

Off to Gawa's house for Christmas dinner. We had chicken with some kinda wine sauce, garlic mashed potatoes, a foo-foo salad, fruit salad and rolls. The veggie had lasagna from Stouffer's.