Christmas in Colorado

We had an awesome Christmas vacation hosted by my sister's family in Colorado Springs.  13 adults and 16 grandchildren.  It was a full house, but maybe I'm just used to it.  It never felt that over-whelming.  This year our vacation featured...
    the addition of a few more grandchildren and a soon-to-be new sister-in-law
    a couple of trips to the movie theater (Interstellar and Unbroken)
    a morning at the trampoline place (that ended in a sad back accident for Brian)
    the introduction of a new game, Splendor
    an adults only dinner at Magnolia's
    a Jimmy Fallon-style lip sync contest
    subzero temperatures that kept us indoors most of the time
    lots of Dominion, sprinkled with a variety of other favorite games
    the playing of the Christmas chimes
    a girls lunch/bridal shower for Carly
    Red Robin with the Gardners
    and last but certainly not least, the production of our 2nd biannual Walton Christmas lip dub.  If you haven't seen it, you have to watch.  We had so much fun practicing our slow-motion singing. Special thanks to Mike and Carly for really owning this project this year.



I get lazy about taking pictures around the holidays.  I do it every year, relying too much on my family of talented photographers to get most of it.  But here are a few from our week together (and mostly just pictures of Jane and Peter anyway).

The kids' table for Christmas Eve dinner.

The adults' table.
Peter was sick AND getting his two front teeth, so for the first half of the trip he was a clingy mama's boy.  I still tried to make him take Christmas pictures, but he was just too miserable.

 Jane got a tricycle from Santa and Peter got a Fire truck and a dump truck.

 I think watching Jane open her stocking was my favorite.  Prior to Christmas, if you asked her what she was going to get in her stocking, she'd say "toys and candies and lollipops and candy canes".  On Christmas morning she added "nail polish" and thank goodness Santa already knew she would love that.  She got everything she wanted in her stocking and more.  It was fun to watcher he pull out each little treasure one by one and put them in her pile.

 Peter's first Christmas was kind of lame...

He did muster enough energy to play with his toys a little.

 The Johnson kids opened a trip to Hawaii.  Lucky!

Mike and Brian stole the gift giving show when they presented everyone with their "Family Timelines" book.  They spent two years researching ancestors, gathering stories and adapting a timeline my dad had made years ago into a beautiful family history book.  They bore their testimonies of the power they felt doing this marvelous work and hoped it would be a starting point for many of us to draw closer to our ancestors.  It is the most incredible gift.

Carly made Mike a little countdown to the wedding bubble wrap calendar.  We're very excited for these two.

When Peter was starting to feel a little more himself, I tried to catch some photos in their Christmas PJs together.  The photos aren't great quality, but I still like them.  These two kids make me so happy.

 Little Owen Walton, just 2 months old.