Christmas 2016

Liam (and Luke) were very excited to receive a drone for Christmas from Grandma and Grandpa Carrithers

Luke and Liam working on their Pokemon card binders, a gift from Uncle Jason and their cousins

We decorated gingerbread houses a few days before Christmas

We got together with our good friends and Finn's godparents, the Weigels.  This is Kevin reading a book to Finn before bed.

.

Finn and his new toys!  Thanks to the Barnes family, Mimi, and Grandma and Grandpa Carrithers

Finn and his Paw Patrol dog Marshall along with the MN Wild mascot Nordy.

John painted Luke and Liam's room over Christmas and Mimi gave them a MN Wild fathead for their room.  The room is supposed to look like a hockey rink with the "ice blue" walls and blue and red lines.  Aiden also received fatheads for his room with all the NHL team logos.

Waiting at the top of the stairs to come down on Christmas morning.  Finn decided to sleep in, of course.

Finn is checking to see if Santa ate some cookies and if the reindeer ate the carrots and apple.  Finn insisted we put the plate on the fireplace for Santa.

Luke got his goalie stick!!

Aiden loved his Playmobil hockey rink from the Barnes Family and the zamboni from Grandpa and Grandma Carrithers

Minnesota Wild jersey from Grandpa Morse

On New Years Day, we worked at Feed my Starving Children with another hockey team to fill bags of food to send to Haiti

Aiden celebrated his 7th birthday on January 2, 2017!!  This is he and one of his best buddies, Mark.

Happy 7th Birthday Aiden!!

Aiden received the fit bit watch that he wanted so much!  Its kid friendly, durable, and water resistant.  Aiden loves numbers and data so he enjoys telling all of us how many steps he has taken each day.

We had a wonderful Christmas break filled with so many activities that its hard for me to recall everything we did.  We started out the holiday break playing and skating with some of our best buddies, making gingerbread houses, more skating on the rink, and visiting with friends.  Luke and Liam played in a holiday hockey tournament after Christmas and really had a great time in several fast paced 4v4 games.  Luke was very excited to try out his new goalie stick in the game.  Their team came in 4th place which isn't bad considering this is the first time we have ever played together with this team.

A lot of our time over Christmas was spent skating in the backyard.  We taught our neighbor friends how to skate (the girls next door).  The girls really enjoyed it and somehow overlooked all the chaos.

John painted Luke and Liam's room over the holidays.  The boys requested a hockey themed room so we can up with the idea of painting the walls "ice blue" and adding a red and blue stripe similar to a hockey rink.  It turned out really good.  Mimi purchased fatheads for all the big boys for their bedrooms so those added a nice touch as well.

Finally, Aiden celebrated his 7th birthday on January 2.  His one request was a fit bit and he was so excited to receive one.  He has been giving all of us updates on how many steps he has taken.

Towards the end of our Christmas break as John and I were taking down the decorations, Finn came downstairs and saw all the boxes of decorations and started asking questions.  He said, "why are you putting all of this away?"  We explained that Christmas was over and so it was time to put away the tree, ornaments, etc...He got upset and started crying and said, "But when will Christmas come again??  I don't want Christmas to leave."  I am certain he had a wonderful Christmas as did the rest of us.  It was great to have some time off from work and school.  Happy 2017!