Ice Speedsters

One of the great things about winter is enjoying a little cold weather fun.  Now, Durham hadn't had much cold weather when January rolled around, but fortunately that didn't stop us.  Downtown Durham has a fabulous ice skating rink during December and January so we can enjoy winter skating fun no matter how warm the weather is!

So, we headed on over one Sunday afternoon to see how graceful we could be.  We had to be a little careful because Ian was still awaiting his hernia surgery so he wasn't allowed to pick up little munchkins when they had fallen on the ice.  Consequently, I definitely got my workout in that day because ice is slippery, especially for little boys.  The ice rink did help us out though.  They had picked up a bunch of plastic buckets from Home Depot.  So, we managed to snag one bucket and the kids took turns racing around the rink with heir hands on the bucket so they were steady.  The other kiddo hung on their mom and practiced their balancing skills.  I did spend a good portion of my time pulling kids around as fast as I could while they hung in between my legs.  Benny started off with some skates for little kids that went over his shoes, but he really couldn't get up the speed he wanted, so he switched to the big boy skates and had a great time.

While we were all a bit tired by the end of the day, we had a bunch of fun.  Boy, those kiddos have gotten fast since the last time we went ice skating.  Who knows that they'll be able to do next time!

(so excited to skate!)

(happy to have a little help from Daddy)

(watching the zamboni-one of their favorite parts of the whole outing)

(another angle to watch-love those boys!)

(Evan whizzes by with a smile.)

(Benny the froggy)

New Year Snuffles

So, after we finished our great trip to Texas over Christmas, our holiday fun wasn't over!  Our plane landed in Charlotte just in time for New Years Eve.  We arrived to a fabulous meal of all kinds of New Years munchies.  Uncle Reid and Aunt Candice were over, and we had a great time just hanging out and watching a movie.

Unfortunately, as I was preparing to head back from Texas, I also acquired my dad's cold.  So, when I arrived in Charlotte I was feeling pretty sick.  That spoiled quite a bit of my fun during that trip, but I had such gracious hosts and they took good care of me while everyone else had some fun!  Oh, and the morning after we arrived Ian just happened to notice that he had gotten a hernia from lifting one to many heavy suitcases on the way back.  (I told him he should have let me help!)  So, he had to spend some time at the doctor getting himself all checked out, but never fear, there was still lots of time for fun!

On New Years Day we woke up to another Christmas celebration!  We all got to sit around the tree, open some gifts, and enjoy some great company!  The boys loved all of their presents including lots of art supplies and crafts and were particularly keen on some suction cup style building blocks that they could stick all over everywhere.  Gram and Gramps' windows looked much more festive after Evan and Ben did some redecorating!  Ian also got a fabulous new Kindle from Gram and Gramps and I think the boys were almost as excited as he was-the possibility for multi-player video games was soooo exciting!

There was actually one more holiday to celebrate while we were down in Charlotte.  The Davises had some fabulous plans to celebrate my birthday.  However, that stinkin' cold got in the way again! They had a pedicure and wonderful Italian dinner all planned.  I was so grateful to them for thinking of me and going out of the way to plan something so fun.  Even though I couldn't go out for all of those adventures, they still brought the party home to me with a lovely take-out Italian dinner complete with birthday cake and presents!

After a few days, we had to get back home to Durham.  We were all sad to go, but we had some great memories of a wonderful trip!

(presents!)

(Benny hugs for Aunt Candice)

(Look at this super cute pillow Gram and Gramps got me-way cuter than the sick Katy behind it!)

(the boys as home decorators)

(the Bennicorn)

(puppy snuggles)

(Pepper is confused!)

(Evan's art project from Papa and Marianne)

(You got a Kindle, Dad!)

(Can we play?)

(more fun art projects)

It's all about the FOOD!

Well, you might have been wondering why there hasn't been that much talk in all of these posts about Christmas about the food.  Well, that's because there was so much fantastic food that it really earned it's own post.  I think my parents were cooking most of the holiday and our full tummies definitely enjoyed it!

While I certainly can't talk about all the delicious weigh-enhancing food that we ate, I can at least hit the highlights.  One of our favorite parts of Bitler family Christmas is always the little tins of goodness.  In one corner of the kitchen there is always a collection of tins filled with all sorts of sweet and savory snacks that we all munch on at all times of day.  There were homemade Cheese-its, coconut and french macaroons, oyster crackers, homemade pay day bars, seasoned nuts, the boys favorite-peanut butter fudge, and even more!

In addition to snacks, there were so many delicious meals!  Every morning Grandpa would make his famous homemade smoothies and the boys loved to help with the process.  With our smoothies we also had all kinds of delicious breakfast treats-biscuits and sausage gravy, homemade fruit kolaches, croissant french toast, pancakes, and more!  What a way to start the day!  One of our most exciting food adventures was with Ian's Christmas morning cinnamon rolls. They decided to rise right out of the pan in the fridge and didn't quite turn out like we wanted.  Poor guy had to make rolls immediately when we got home from the holidays to redeem himself, and boy were they good!

(Grandpa patiently waits for the kolaches to finish.)

(beautiful!)

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we had several delicious meals.  One of our traditions on Christmas Eve is to make a bunch of small snacks and appetizers so we can graze.  This year it was a Spanish theme paying tribute to Grandma and Grandpa's recent trip to Spain.  We had tortilla espanola, meatballs, wine soaked sausages, and then more traditional offerings like pigs in a blanket, cheese log, and shrimp and cocktail sauce.  It was a great meal to munch on while we waited for Santa to arrive.

(Our Christmas Eve spanish-inspired feast)

For Christmas Eve we always go with a British theme complete with beef tenderloin and Yorkshire puddings.  Then for dessert we had several offerings.  We had the traditional Christmas pudding which Grandpa always lights on fire.  The kids were quite impressed, and this year we actually managed to not melt anything!  Ian also added a Christmas yule log.  It not only looked beautiful but it tasted delicious.  Christmas Day dinner always finishes off with the Christmas crackers and accompanying silly hat pictures and this year was no different.

(The chef awaits his diners.)

(Christmas dinner, yum!)

(the lighting of the Christmas pudding)

(yule log!)

(Great-Grandma Dot and Evan look regal in their crowns.)

(The Mhire Family)

(The crowns even fit on our family of big heads!)

Holiday food traditions always brings back so many great memories-They taste like home and remind me of holidays past.  However, there are always a few new goodies thrown in the mix that are sure to become new traditions.  My stomach can't wait for next year!

(Merry Christmas Everyone!)

Lots of Family and Long Lost Friends

While the Mhire Family had to go home after way too short of a visit, our fun wasn't done in San Antonio.  Not only was there birthday shopping fun for me with Mom and Grandma Dot (yay for new sweaters!), but we got to see several more people that we hadn't seen in quite a while.

First, we headed in to a great little mexican restaurant a little further in town and met up with some of our college friends, some of which we hadn't seen in literally 10 years.  We met our friends Dave and Shannon Miller and their daughter Anna who is a little younger than Benny.  Dave was one of Ian's groomsmen in our wedding.  We hadn't seen them since a few years after graduating from college.  We also got to see our friend Dave Shatila who was also in our service fraternity in college.  We had seen him fairly recently at a wedding and were looking forward to seeing his wife again and meeting his kids.  However, at the last minute his wife had to stay home with a sick daughter.  At least we got a chance to see Dave.  It was so nice to talk to everyone and reminisce about the good ol' days.  The kids were also really good and happily played with their Kindle so we could get a little extra chatting time.  Hopefully it won't be quite as long before we see each other again.

A few days after our great dinner with friends, we got to see a little more family. Aunt Karen and Wyatt flew in so that Wyatt could announce the K-State bowl game that was actually taking place in San Antonio in a few days.  They were able to head up to the house in Boerne and spend some time with us.  Even though Aunt Karen was coming down with a little cold we had a fun walk, a great meal, and the boys got to spend some quality time with them, even pulling Wyatt of into the backyard for a little rock exploration.  It was such a great coincidence that K-State had their bowl game in San Antonio.

The trip was so rich and full of family and friends, and we were so fortunate to get to see each and every one!

(Karen and Wyatt-the people in purple-converse with Dad.)

(a family walk)

(old friends and good friends)

Family Festivities

So, after our first few days of fun in Texas, the Mhires arrived and we were really ready to celebrate the holidays.  The cousins loved seeing each other and immediately they asked to play their latest obsession, Minecraft.  So, over the course of the next few days the boys spent lots of hours positioned over Jack's computer bonding over a video game.

(the Minecraft trio)

However, there were moments where we were able to pull them away from their gaming to have some holiday fun.  We spent Christmas Eve Day making cookies both Great-grandma's awesome chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies for decorating.  Everyone had some fun decorating them.  However, I think some of the cookies, especially Benny's, were more frosting than cookie!

(making Christmas cookies)

(my work of art)

While we were decorating cookies we had the extreme honor to have "Santa" call us on the telephone.  I don't know how he had the time to take out of his busy schedule, but he talked to each kid.  Evan and Ben were very impressed, and Evan was definitely a little wide-eyed.

(Jack talks to Santa while Ben observes.)

(Is it really you, Santa?)

Later on Christmas Eve, we ate a delicious meal of all variety of snacks and munchies, some of us got on their matching Christmas PJ's, and we all sat down to watch the Christmas movie, Elf.  There's a moment at the end of the movie where everyone is singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town".  Our whole family joined in and it was the sweetest moment.  After the movie, the kiddos were treated to some hot chocolate, a traditional reading of "The Night Before Christmas" from Grandma, and then they were off to bed.

(watching for Santa)

(cousins!)

(watching Elf and singing along)

(hot chocolate before bed)

(awwww)

(twas the night before Christmas)

When we all woke up in the morning, Santa had visited and the Christmas tree was very happy.  We told the kids that they couldn't get up before 7am.  However, I started to hear mutterings up there starting at about 6:15.  The boys managed to make it till 7am, then we had to wake up Aunt Audra, Uncle Tommy, and Livi, and we were ready to see what was under the tree.  We are a very lucky family to receive all of the wonderful gifts both from each other and Santa.  The kiddos had a great time opening their stockings first.  They were entranced by their new Jacob's Ladder toys, and of course, immediately wanted to assemble and eat all of their Pez!

(a happy tree Christmas morning)

(yay, stocking stuffers)

(Evan examines his Jacob's ladder)

(Grandpa, aka Grinch, surveys the scene)

(more stocking goodies)

Then, we all opened our goodies from under the tree.  The boys were thrilled with all of their gifts, especially their two new robots Zoomer and MIP.  They had fun trying to figure out how MIP and Zoomer worked and made them dance and bark and play for the rest of the day.  Evan especially liked to turn on MIP's music function and have a dance party with him in the middle of the floor.  They also enjoyed their Plants vs. Zombies books and stuffed animals and had to read the books immediately.  They also had fun playing Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em Robots.  Jack got a cool new bow and arrow which they tried out later in the day.  I think Miss Livi had the most volume under the tree and she had a great time wandering around the house the rest of the day dressed as Doc McStuffins.

(the boys and their new robot buddies)

(preparing the Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots)

(Does anyone need a Doc McStuffins?)

(Warriors ready for action!)

It was a wonderful Christmas filled with fun, food, and family, and the next day was no different.  The day after Christmas we made our way down to the San Antonio Riverwalk which Audra and I had been wanting to check out for years.  We took everyone on a boat ride on the river and then just wandered around checking out the lights that hung from all of the trees and were draped across the river.  It was beautiful!  The kids were a bit tired by the end of the night, but they managed to save enough energy to do a little parkour (scaring some of the grown ups) and pose in front of the lights.  Oh, and the weather was so nice that we didn't even have to wear a coat!

(my boys explore the Riverwalk)

(happy Mhire family)

(love these kiddos)

(family on a boat)

(the warriors are back)

(sisters!)

The next day, unfortunately the Mhire family had to go home.  There were lots of sad cousins and sad grown ups too.  I'm so glad that the kids get along so well, and I know we're all looking forward to the next chance to get together!