Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Tower family. We hope your Christmas was as special as ours and that you were surrounded by those who love you. The celebration of Christmas is always a balancing act for our family as there are so many wonderful things vying for our time. This year our celebrations stretched from December 25th through December 29th. It was wonderful to be able to spend time with most of the family God has blessed us with.
When Elizabeth came along 8 years ago, we decided to carry on the tradition my parents started when we were young of staying home as a family on Christmas Day. It's important to us that we have one day that's devoted to celebrating with our children in our home. The highlight of that day for our children is having their grandparents over for part of the day. This year all of the grandparents joined us for brunch and a few rounds of Beatles Rock Band.
The girls picked out gifts for each other and Bryan this year at their school Christmas shop. It was fun to see their choices.
"Thanks, Elizabeth, I think." :-)
So much love. :-)
Introducing the grandparents to Rock Band. They did very well for beginners. :-)
The day after Christmas we celebrated with Eric's family.
Sunday was Eric's mom's family and then Monday was spent with Brenda's family.
Tuesday, we were able to spend a gorgeous sunny day out sledding with Brenda's sister's family and dad. It was so nice out we were peeling off some of our winter gear. Alivia and James had never been on a "dedicated" sledding hill before, so it was fun to be able to experience their excitement. By the end, Alivia and Bryan were going down together and on their own.
Grandpa was the daredevil of the group and is probably very fortunate to be all in one piece.
It's a long way up that hill, isn't it, Ashlynn?
We definately got our exercise.
Almost the whole group.
Because our times together are so few, it makes them so valuable. We had an awesome weekend and can't wait for the next time we can get together. Thanks for making the trip, Shari, Stephen, Alivia, James and Josiah. We love you.
We finished our party spree on Tuesday night with Brenda's dad's family. We've had a two day break and then we will celebrate with Eric's dad's family today. Elizabeth was put to bed at 8:30 last night with her books, but was told if she was still awake at midnight she could join us for the ball dropping. She was determined and got her wish. I'm not sure if it was as exciting as she hoped it would be. :-)
It's a long way up that hill, isn't it, Ashlynn?
We definately got our exercise.
Almost the whole group.
Because our times together are so few, it makes them so valuable. We had an awesome weekend and can't wait for the next time we can get together. Thanks for making the trip, Shari, Stephen, Alivia, James and Josiah. We love you.
We finished our party spree on Tuesday night with Brenda's dad's family. We've had a two day break and then we will celebrate with Eric's dad's family today. Elizabeth was put to bed at 8:30 last night with her books, but was told if she was still awake at midnight she could join us for the ball dropping. She was determined and got her wish. I'm not sure if it was as exciting as she hoped it would be. :-)
