Family Ski Day

Another one of my favorite family holiday traditions is family ski and boarding day! I requested the day off from work, and got a few free day passes from one of my drs that has connections with Brighton. It was such an awesome day! We all bundled, preparing for a freezing day and battling cold winds and snow, but it turned out to be a fairly warm day so we slowly discarded our layers one by one, and enjoyed the wonderful weather. I spent most of the day with Andrew, Ben and Bethy going down runs on the big mountain, while Karin and Reece spent the day with Will teaching him how to ski on slightly easier runs.

We all met up for a couple of runs together, then grabbed lunch at the lodge. We sat outside in the sunshine and enjoyed our burgers, one of the best meals after a day of snowboarding

With a group that big, with such varying degrees of skill, we all found ourselves waiting at the top of the lift or on the side of the mountain for one reason or another, I took advantage of these times to take lots of pictures with my super adorable nephews.

The sun even made a quick cameo a couple of times during our day, after several failed attempts at selfies without eye protection, we gave in ... 

What an awesome day, with awesome people, doing one of the things I love most, I definitely feel in my element while snowboarding, especially one warm, sunny days. I'm so glad my nephews share my love for being up on the mountain! Until next year!

Sunday Brunch at the Grand

I was unable to make it to the Johns family tradition of going to brunch at the Grand America the week after Christmas since I had to work. I was so sad to miss it, it's one of my favorite Christmas and family traditions so Beth and Reece invited me to go to Sunday brunch at the grand so I didn't have to completely miss out on this tradition. 

Sunday brunch it a much bigger affair than their regular brunch, there are tables upon tables of all sorts of delicious delights and they have live jazz music, it is so much fun! There was quite a wait when we arrived and put our name in, so we decided to grab a quick appetizer at the bakery and go see the windows before our main meal, they were so adorable this year!

These itty bitty penguins and forest animals were too adorable not to document, just look at their tiny, little cookies and hot chocolate!

Then we got the text that our table was ready! Before we got seated, we were given a tour of all the different tables and what was available for brunch, there was so much beautifully displayed food, such as the chocolate sculpture pictured below.

The trees in the lobby were decorated with chandelier crystals, they were so beautiful, I now want to add a few crystals to my christmas tree.

Christmas Season 2015

Merry Belated Christmas! I'm slowly catching up, maybe one of these days I will post events in the month they happened. All of the Burton boys were so excited to meet their newest cousin, Vienne. All six of them were instantly smitten with her, there was always a line of who got to hold V next. And she loved each of the boys just as much.

On Christmas eve we had a lovely dinner with a beautiful Backer's cake for dessert, we thought it would be fun to get one of these special cakes since the Burton's aren't ever in town when we get them for birthdays.

After dinner and dessert we played a few games then did a family service project. We tied fleece blankets to give to the hospital, it was a great project for our large family since there was something that every age could do, all the kids had a great time working together.

Then we sang a few carols and were off to bed with visions of sugarplums dancing in our heads

The next morning the kids were up early, excited for the day! We began with our delicious homemade sweet rolls for breakfast, one of my favorite family traditions. 

Then it was down to the "Christmas Room" to open presents! I love watching the kids get excited about their gifts, they are such a joy to celebrate holidays with!

Jenny made these adorable aprons for James and Thomas since they love helping Karin cook so much, they were thrilled!

Vienne's first Christmas!

The day after Christmas, we had our annual sisters pedicure and lunch day!

That night, we celebrated Boxing Day! Since we will be traveling to England next summer, we decided it would be fun to teach the kids about this English holiday. We celebrated by doing a white elephant gift exchange, it was so much fun! We shared many giggles and decided this must become a tradition.