The Day After Christmas

The day after Christmas Glen and I were up and at 'em early. Glen had a doctor's appointment.

He got his stitches out. After the doctor took a look at his shoulder, he gave Glen the okay to start physical therapy. Glen likes the drawing the doctor made on his arm during surgery.

Back home, the kids were eating a late breakfast.

Glen showed Eli and Carson how his shoulder ice pad worked and let them feel the coldness.

When everyone was ready, we moved the group from the house to the church. Some of the grandchildren had gotten new scooters for Christmas and it was a great place to let the scooterers try out their new scooters since there was snow on the ground outside.

We were also excited to play Reindeer Games--which Sarah had made up and played with Jeff's family last Christmas. She got Ben busy hiding some pictures for one of the games.

Sarah had her poster ready for the children to take turns picking which game they wanted to play. Such games as Fixin' Up Vixen, Cupid's Caroling, Blitzen's Boot Camp, etc.

How can anyone play reindeer games without reindeer antlers???

Apparently once Santa Claus, always Santa Claus.

Ben and Bear even got antlers.

 The little kids are attacking Ben trying to get him to play reindeer games with them.

"Come on, Uncle Ben!!!"

A rousing game of Musical Prancers (musical chairs).

Everybody line up for Mad Dasher. (Sarah, forgive me if I am calling these activities the wrong name. I am referring to your blog picture showing all your Reindeer Games' names and trying to put the right name with the right activity.)

I don't know what the obstacle course was called. Maybe it was Blitzen's Boot Camp. First up--Brooke and Caroline.

Next was Newland and Spencer with their mommy helpers.

Carson and Caroline.

Looks like it's Donner, Donner, Elf (Duck, Duck, Goose) and Brooke called Elf on Abe. Off he goes chasing her around the entire gym.

Freeze Dancering (Freeze Tag) was hilarious when the order was shouted for everyone to FREEZE!!

Good one, Eli!

Some more great poses!

Brooke was so happy her grandpa was taking such good care of Bear for her.

 Comet's Chimney Toss (toss the ball in the bin).

Last game Run, Run Rudolph!! (Or Scooter, Scooter Rudolph if you were a kid who preferred scootering to running.)

Let's give Sarah a big cheer for organizing such a fun family activity!!! It was awesome!

Abe and Klarissa left us in charge of Newland for a while and Sarah continued on with her orchestrating making little people happy that day as she helped Newland feel not too unhappy that his parents were no longer in sight.

Once her charms wore off, she resorted to "Curious George" to keep Newland happy.

Looks like it's working to keep her boys happy as well.

Christmas Day

Newland started Christmas morning festivities by eating some chocolate. Inside the candy was a surprise.

One-armed Glen is trying to help Newland with his new whistle.

I'm always happy to get updated photos of the families. Looks like Newland recognizes these photos.

On to opening more gifts.

Stop for a few minutes to FaceTime with Klarissa's missionary sister Mariah.

On with the gifts.

Ben got candy.

Newland did a great job putting all the trash where it belonged.

Watch out Newland! Looks like potty training is in your near future.

Newland showed us how he could run super fast with his new Lightning McQueen slippers on his feet.

More family photos. Sweet!

Our little granddaughter apparently spent a lot of time making homemade gifts for everyone this year. These were the first two gifts under our tree.

Brooke made Glen a puzzle.

She made me some beaded artwork. According to Dallas, Brooke's gifts were the highlight of his Christmas. I must agree she had put a lot of thought and effort into her gift-giving this year.

Sarah's family's adorable family portraits. Hmmm, just waiting for another family to send us theirs...

 Ben is admiring the silhouette Christmas ornaments we got of Eli and Carson.

Glen took it upon himself to cook everyone Christmas breakfast French toast. He just loved the fact he could use his right arm a bit more each day.

Rachel had given me a Christmas card the night before and her wish for Christmas was for it to snow. When I opened the blinds Christmas morning, what did I behold but a vision of Rachel's wish that had come true.

We had some snow angels taking care of keeping our driveway clear. One of our neighbors cleared it off first. Ben had a couple of different turns shoveling and Abe even got a turn as well removing the snow. Ben was probably the only one on the street out shoveling without a coat on while the snow was falling.

Everyone wanted to put the snow to good use, so they donned their snow apparel, grabbed their sleds and were anxious to get out on a snowy hill to see how far they could slide.

Looks like all that sledding made someone hungry. I love this next sequence of pictures. It depicts perfectly Carson "getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar" so to speak.

Eli, Spencer and Dallas were being electronically entertained.

Brooke and Caroline were hiding out from everyone playing Legos in our closet.

Madison was modeling her Santa outfit and showing us her toothy grin.

Rebecca and Sarah were enjoying looking through all the Christmas cards we had received.

While Abe was helping with dinner by carving the turkey.

 It had been a fun, snowy Christmas day to remember.