Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Eve, and Shenanigans

Thanksgiving was really nice this year. We hosted for the very first time and it went really well. Grammy and Granddaddy came, but also Linda, Brady and much of their family. We enjoyed good company, good food, and nice weather. 

Christmastime is my favorite time of the year and this year's was amazing. We missed doing some of our usual activities like Lights Under Louisville. New activities happened though, including a neighborhood party at the Bohn's house. Also, after a couple of years of not gathering due to Covid-19, the Keeling family Christmas party was held again. 

Decorating the Christmas tree was fun, but also a total mess this year. Despite the adorable pictures, the decorating also included lots of bickering and ornament breaking. The tree did turn out to be very pretty and I loved it. 

Decorating the gingerbread house was lots of fun. As usual, I think more of the candy was eaten than was used for decorating.

We enjoyed decorating Christmas cookies. I have found a really good recipe for the cookie dough that works well for both baking, decorating, and that also tastes really good. Both the Petrosky and Arkema families came to decorate cookies. We had a great time and the cookies were cute and tasty.

The neighborhood Christmas party for the kids was lots of fun. Preston still enjoys the Christmas magic, so he was excited to get a visit from Santa.

Sir Christmas Pants returned and was full of shenanigans. 

Santa came and the boys received lots of exciting gifts. 

The boys woke up bright and early to open presents!

We went to Grammy and Granddaddy's house for lunch and to exchange presents. It was snowy and Caleb and Evan spent lots of time playing outside.

The temperatures during winter break were so low that the creek and pond froze! We had so much fun playing on the ice!

I can't forget waking up to a beaver in the basement bathroom! With the pond frozen, this destructive cutie was out on ice. When Carl couldn't scare him back down to the creek where he came from, he decided it was a good idea to capture him! He spent the night and then packed his bags to a place where he wouldn't be a bother to anyone. 

Cousin Christmas with the Amshoffs was fun and ended up with an unexpected sleepover!

We had fun together on New Year's Eve. We played games and ate lots of snacks. We also had dinner at Seasoned. 

The Congleton family visited in December and the bog boys created an awesome fort! 

Evan enjoyed fishing during the milder weather. We were quite impressed with this huge catfish that he  caught!