Friday morning we finished packing up whatever did not get packed the night before. We wanted an early start just to get the 8 hour drive over with and so we left about 6:30 in the morning with Bob and Alison not too far behind us. I really wanted to stop at Multnomah Falls which is a couple of hours outside Portland. Avynlea and Kenedy both get car sick and we already had Avy throwing up so it was nice to get to the Falls for a little bit of a breather. She and Kenedy were still not feeling great but I think the cool mist from the falls helped revive them a bit. We did not have time to hike the mile up to the Falls so we just went up to the bridge which gave us a great view and was a good stopping point.
As we were getting ready to leave the Falls Bob called to see if we wanted to meet them to eat breakfast. That would have been lots of fun but with the two sickos in the car and the long drive ahead of us we just wanted to get home. So we continued on our way and finally made it home where we had bonus Christmas. Santa left all of the kids presents under the tree so after we picked up the Hamster from the Mortensens and unloaded the car we sat down to do some gift opening.
I had lots of leftover material from their pajamas and so I made the girls American Girl Dolls matching pajamas. They turned out so cute and were really fun and quite easy to make. Avy and Rylee loved them! I even made some from last years leftover pajama material.
Ryker was tasked with handing out the gifts until he misread Rylees name for his and started tearing into a present that was not for him. Nobody was mad but he felt really bad and slunk off to hide around the corner. He perked up when he opened his next present which was a tablet.
Kefford got Kenedy a special edition Sleeping Beauty movie along with The Labyrinth. He thought it would be funny o take the sleeve off of Sleeping Beauty and put it on the other one to make her think someone goofed and got her two of the same. It worked and was pretty funny but he quickly showed her what was underneath the other.
After Santa Presents were done we opened the Secret Person gifts from my family.
Camryn had Avynlea
Ashleigh had Rylee
Big Jeremy had Kefford
Erin had Elizabeth
Andrew had Kenedy
Kenedy mentioned to Andrew, as they were out Black Friday shopping, that she wanted wash tape, showed him what it was and mentioned the best deal was at Wal-Mart. He had told her he knew who had her and was trying to get ideas for them. Later with Me and Emily we went to Wal-Mart so he could get her tape. He wrapped one of the tapes in a scotch tape box to make her think that's what he got her and that he did not understand what wash tape was. I thought that was a funny idea but did not think it would fool Kenedy. But it did! She opened that box and was so fooled. She was laughing about poor confused Andrew who had no idea what wash tape was even though she showed it to him. I loved it.
I guess I did not get a picture of Ryker. Rylee had Ryker and she got him a card holder for his Magic cards, a model car to put together and then an Ewok and Jawa felt creatures we had found at a craft show.
I got some really cool stoneware bowls from my Mom that I love! Also the kids got notebooks my Mom had made for them to write in as Journals. They looked cool and were a great idea but what was even cooler was she wrote in them, one entry for each month, a childhood memory of hers. She made it age appropriate so Kenedys were from when she was in High School and the other kids had memories of hers from when she was their ages. My kids thought the memories were the best and I have to agree, what a priceless gift. Rylee read about how the girls could only wear skirts to school and she could not get over how weird that was.
It was a good Christmas, different from being out of town but so much fun! My kids loved having Christmas a day later and were good sports about everything. I loved being able to spend time with Keffords family and hope that we can do things like that again.