Christmas at the Bates

We had a fun Christmas with the Bates family in Olympia this year. We were happy to have my Grandpa Ricks join us, as well as Marie's Fiance, Jeff join us for part of the holiday as well.  We did some fun activities as seen in the numerous pictures to come, but we just enjoyed being together and eating and talking. Special thanks to my parents for hosting us...we were a wild bunch, and it's a difficult job to host activities for such a wide range of ages and needs.  And keeping the whole crowd happy and fed! But we had a lovely time all together, our last time together for a while. Mike leaves on a mission sometime next year and Marie is off to get hitched in March. So it was a special Christmas all together.

We began the Christmas festivities by meeting up at our apartment in Bellevue after picking up the out-of-town guests at the airport. We then went downtown to "snowflake lane" as they call it where they have a fun parade and dance show along with "snow" every night. Always entertaining. 

Check out my dad's cool hat. Perfect to keep the "snow" bubbles off his head. :)

here's the love birds!

Mike has been at BYU, so he got to meet Rosalyn for the first time.  She liked cuddling with him. :)

Marie's birthday is the 22nd. Here is her birthday dinner! Yum!

I love celebrating birthdays! Especially when Marie is in love on her birthday!

Here we are going to church on the Sunday before Christmas.  Rosalyn wore the dress Brielle wore a year before. Dejavu again!

Mike had his Eagle Court of Honor that night.  It was wonderful! He's such a good boy scout. :) They said such nice things about him.  It was great to hear people complimenting my brother...they like him as much as I do! 

He gave some great remarks and my favorite was a slideshow my Dad put together of his accomplishments.  Great memories. What a great guy!

Ok, maybe my actual favorite part of the evening was watching Marie's fiance, Jeff, look at her all night.  He couldn't keep his eyes off her.  See in the picture? He's still watching her while she leads the music.  Ok, can you tell how much I love this couple? :)

Afterwards we had yummy refreshments. Rosalyn looked on in Grandpa's arms.

Mike's table of accomplishments. He's already done some great things in his life!

Two sets of sisters....

The next day we went to see Frozen.  In a movie theater! I know....I haven't been to a movie theater since before Brielle was born! It was an awesome experience. :) While we were driving, we found a Darth Vadar helmet in the back of the van.  This has nothing to do with Christmas, but it was a funny moment that I had to document. 

We decorated huge Gingerbread men this year. I dedicated mine to Claire. Here she is, in a sparkly shirt and Ugg boots, all ready for the New Years Eve dance in gingerbread form:

Everyone went to a Christmas play and another night they went to the Messiah Singalong. We conveniently skipped out on these events...which was fine because it was easier getting the girls to bed anyway. We drank a lot of hot cocoa and ate a lot of yummy Christmas sweets. Talked a lot, laughed a lot, watched Christmas movies and finished Christmas shopping. 

And then it was Christmas. 

To be continued.....