Christmas Gatherings

As always we had numerous family gatherings for Christmas. I'm finding myself having fewer pics from these type of events. Probably because most of my time is spent desperately trying to balance parenting (ie keep my kids from breaking things, yelling, running or hurting each other while also making sure they have fun) and actually getting to visit with people! I hardly have time to pick up the camera. Thankfully my dad usually has his, so many of these pics are his!


Immediate Wiley Family

I love our family get together. It's not that we do anything super special, but I love celebrating with my family. This year with all the kiddos being of a good playful age made it really fun!

I thought we had a small Christmas tree, but my parents had us beat! They had just finished revamping their downstairs rooms and didn't have time to get a big tree.


I loved my kiddos' Christmas garb! So handsome! So beautiful!


Fun with cousins - they all adore each other. I hope it's always like that!




Some family love



Enjoying the presents!




My sweet little family


Santa

I'm going to squeeze seeing Santa on the float in here. Mostly cuz I don't feel like making a whole separate post for it! Redondo Beach canceled their float due to lack of funding, so we made sure we were at my parents' house to meet Torrance's Santa. Austin, of course, loved it. He was very excited to show Santa his stuff reindeer. McKenna, of course, hated it. But she did freak out less this year than last year!



Grandma met us over there to get to see the kids with Santa


Steinmeyer Christmas

I was so glad this year our Steinmeyer Christmas was held at my parents' house because that meant we could go for the whole time, rather than being a couple hours late! It was a wonderful gathering but also somber as it was the 1st time my Grandpa wasn't there. He was in hospice care following a fall and passed away 4 days after Christmas. He was a wonderful man, despite his gruffness, and left a legacy of faith in our family - every single member of our family is a professing Christian.

And that legacy is continuing with the next generation too. My cousin's sons recited all of Luke 2 to start our worship for the evening. They rocked it!



The next generation of cousins


And I have to throw in this pic of McKenna and I! Love this shot!


Christmas Morning at our house

Christmas with kids gets more fun every year! Austin and McKenna look forward to the present part of Christmas. Hopefully soon they will understand the real reason we celebrate though!

I gave in some and let Brian do a little bit of a Santa tradition with Austin too. I never believed in Santa growing up and have a problem with teaching my kids to do so, but I was okay with having fun as long as it is presented as a game. Since he couldn't teach him the whole Santa story, Brian thought it would be funny to tell Austin that Santa comes to inspect how well we decorated our Christmas tree and if he likes our work, he eats the cookies we left for him. Our children are going to be so confused when the get to school and compare notes with their friends!

(The carrots were for the reindeer)


Gotta share a pic of our Christmas morning fire - Brian and I giggled when I came across this on TV and we thought it was fairly fitting since our fireplace couldn't actually be used for a fire!


Grandma joined us again this year and we had such a great morning!




Brian with his traditional underpants present. Austin was jealous of the Angry Bird underpants and used to insist they were his!


We had a present fail. I assisted the kids in buying Brian a "daddle" - a saddle for daddies. It was super cute and would have worked great since the kids have a hard time hanging on sometimes. Unfortunately he ended up being allergic to it! It was sold by a company that also makes real saddles and sells hay, so the best we can figure is Brian is allergic to hay! It was promptly returned1



Grandma got the kids great presents this year. She made Austin a teepee. It's awesome. The kids love to watch TV from inside and often have teepee picnics!


And McKenna got a baby bed.


Apparently there was a little confusion about it's proper use...


Crowley Christmas

For the first time, we celebrated somewhere other than Gramma Crowley's house. Instead we got together at Brian's cousin Eric's house. It was a nice change of scenery and we had a great time. The women in Brian's family really know how to make yummy food too! We always eat so good!

McKenna really liked Eric's tree!


Grandpa & Great Grandma Crowley


The kids had fun showing Grandpa their new toys, especially their new motorcycle!




Extended Wiley Christmas

The day after Christmas was spent over at my grandparents' home. It's always a great day to finish off our get-togethers. My grandparents are wonderful and we are so blessed to get to spend time with them! My dad's family is all really funny and hanging out with them is always very entertaining.

My sweet grandparents!


And one of my Grandma and Katelyn & McKenna


And one of my Grandpa and his youngest (at that time) great granddaughter. (Dontcha just love her cheeks?!)

I wish I had more pics from that day, but I was busy chasing my kiddos and just enjoying myself and for some reason my dad hardly had any to snag!

Once again a busy but wonderful Christmas Season!