Christmas Week in Riverside 2015

We kicked off Christmas week with Aaron's family with a reading by Grammy and Grandpa.  I loved starting out the week on a spiritual note with everyone gathered around.  I tried hard to have all my shopping down before December so that I could focus more on the Savior this year and all that I wanted the holiday to really be about.  So when Grammy and Grandpa said they wanted to read about the Savior's birth we were more than happy to listen. 

And it doesn't hurt that we ended the night with brownies and ice cream :)

The days leading up to Christmas were spent here and there (Aaron actually had to drive back to Fresno for a couple days of work) but we did manage to get in a viewing of the newest Star Wars movie.  And we loved it!

Then Christmas Eve we headed over to Adam and Christy's new place to play games and make sugar cookies.  The Wii was a major hit...

But I especially loved being in the kitchen with these lovely ladies...

^^Eleanor was not shy about her love for cookie dough. 

We took some of the cookies to Adam and Christy's neighbors and then headed back to the McKell's for a Christmas Eve dinner.  

We snapped some photos of the grandkids by the Christmas tree and discovered that getting pictures in doors at night of a 1 and 2 year old together is no easy feat.

After the kids went to bed, we all watched that dads assemble Santa presents for the next day. Aaron and Adam sure make cute dads.

And then the night ended with everyone (but mostly the guys) around this track.  Aaron grew up with a track like this but it had since bit the dust.  Mark got the idea to get a new track (of course a bigger and better one :)) and build up the whole thing again.  They finished it on Christmas Eve and so many a race ensued.

Not pictured but a major part of Christmas week was all the late night game sessions.  Cover Your Assets, Sequence, Settlers.  You name it, we did it.  

We hit the bed exhausted on Christmas Eve but excited to see Eleanor's face light up the next morning.  I'll save Christmas morning pics for the next post though...