Holidays!

 We had a fantastic Christmas this year.  My parents came up from California and stayed with us for just over a week.  Tyler and Maleina loved having them over.  They hadn't seen them since September, which is a long time for them.  Nine Christmas's in our house and we finally put lights up for the first time.  The kids loved them! 

 Mr. & Mrs. Claus came to the McNeil family Christmas party.  The looks on their faces tells the story.  Tyler is doing it to make mom happy, while Maleina is very attentive and listening to everything Santa has to say to her.

  was invited to an ornament exchange party at my friend's house.  It was so much fun.  I made salt dough music notes for it.  Sprayed them black and them put a gloss on them.  I made a few extra and my little artist had to make some her own way.  Maleina loved painting them. 

Christmas morning the kids enjoyed opening their gifts.  Highlights of their gifts were a snowboard and New York Giants hat for Tyler.  Maleina got roller blades and an art kit.  They loved their gifts!  Santa was very good to them. 

It doesn't matter how long the Christmas break is, it is never long enough.  We sure loved having family over and spending time with them.  New Year's Eve we had all my siblings and their families over.  I started a new tradition with a New Year's tree and it was a huge hit.  I will definitely continue this each year.  Although the gifts inside the balloons will have to change I'm sure.  Every hour starting at 8:00 pm the kids picked a balloon and popped it to get a prize.  I was impressed that all the kids ages 3 and up stayed awake until well past midnight.We even had Grandpa & Grandma Jensen on the phone and rang in the New Year with them UT time.