Hiller Christmas

On the years that we go to California for Christmas, we have Hiller Christmas a few days later and everyone waits until then to exchange gifts and have a meal together. Thanks to Jen, I have way more photos of this event. Penelope would rather open up one present and play with it, which I actually really love about her. Claire and Miles are ready for the next present as soon as the tissue paper from their last gift hits the floor, but it is a lesson in patience as they wait their turn in a circle of 15 other people.

Here are some of my favorite photos from the festivities.

With a lot of help from Noah, Miles found the pickle ornament - the person who finds it gets a prize or gets to open the first gift. I introduced this ornament tradition to the Johnsons, but not sure it will stick :) 

A new haircut and Miles looks 8 years old all of a sudden. Sheesh. 

Waiting, waiting, waiting... 

So happy this girl loves books as much as I do!

Believe it or not, Nick's extra tall footie pajamas were too long... guess 6'7" isn't extra tall these days... 

Baby Boy - Almost 27 Weeks

I had a recent ultrasound specifically to check out the baby's heart development. I had asked my doctor if he could see any holes between the chambers or if it was too early - and mentioned that Penelope had a very small hole in her heart that they found at birth (that she still has, but doesn't seem to be a big deal). He didn't see anything but said it was still very early so he scheduled this appointment with a possible echo cardiogram if there were signs of anything wrong. But there was no need for the echo - everything looked good and there wasn't anything that concerned the doctor enough to warrant the additional testing, which saved us a lot of money.

Baby boy is growing nicely - according to my pregnancy app, babies around this age are usually about 1 2/3 lbs. According to the ulstrasound measurements, he is more like 2 1/3 lbs and very active. They were having a hard time getting measurements because he kept moving and putting his hands on his head. He is in about the 60th percentile, so not too big, not too small. Three months to go!!!

Johnson Christmas

We made the almost 12 hour trek to Placerville this year to have Christmas with the Johnsons. It could be a 10 hour drive with no stops, but it seems the more kids we have, the longer potty and food breaks take (and we have more stops in general). However, the kids were AWESOME and Penelope didn't have one accident on the entire round trip, even though she is only fairly recently potty trained. She redeemed herself after the last few trips, which were pretty rough.

We went to Erick and Megan's for Christmas Eve and had a Chinese food dinner with them and Grandma and Grandpa Johnson. Grandma can't be out and about for very long so we only got to see them for a few hours. We also got to meet Polly Lou, Erick and Megan's new baby, born on December 1st. The kids made gingerbread houses and played in their huge playroom all night.

Both of these five year olds are missing their bottom two teeth!

Matt was one of the few people who could hold Polly on this visit - most of us were recovering from a cold.

Then we spent Christmas Day at my parent's house and opened presents - Kenny came up that morning to join us. I was terrible at taking photos on this trip - I had forgotten our nice camera and my phone was always dead or frozen - time for a new one.

Dad made a pheasant dinner for us that afternoon along with all the sides from Mom and Megan - they are over turkey and ham, they said. Pheasant breaded and fried in butter is fine by me!

Penelope was in stuffed animal heaven in my old bedroom - I think my mom is starting to hoard stuffed teddy bears because they certainly weren't there when Becky and I shared that room.

A Dad's rite of passage - reading the instructions! Miles had a Transformer toy that took about
20 steps to morph from car to Bumblebee.

It was a very camo Christmas at the Johnson's this year - I think we were the only non-hunters in the bunch. Everyone, including my mom, got camo gear except for me :) Even Matt got a desert camo shirt for his shooting trips to Front Sight. However, Penelope enjoyed this camo hat that sang "Grandma got ran over by a reindeer"- moving antlers and all. 

We had a great visit - kids had fun with their cousins and we were happy to meet Polly. It is so nice having our kids all close together in age - close in distance, that's another story. Matty is not far behind - he and Alexis are expecting their first baby, sometime in June or July I think. So they will pick up where we stop - and our youngest will be close in age to their oldest.

Christmas Sunday Best

Rough time getting photos on Sunday... these are the best I could do. My well-trained photo takers are apparently a thing of the past.

More Christmas Festiviites

Our 2015 Christmas Card - got in in the mail with barely enough time this year.

We went to see the lights at the Speedway, which is actually just a few miles from our house now instead of all the way across town. You drive around the racecar track and under the bleachers - it's a huge light display. It's difficult to get a good photo in the dark, but this gives a general idea of the drive.

A few favorite Gladstone spots from this year.

Claire performed with her second grade class in her school's first Winterfest - they sang Feliz Navidad and she did a great job!

Claire's Winterfest from Shannon Hiller on Vimeo.

Ugly Sweater Party

Well, we didn't win the Ugly Sweater Contest, but we still had fun. Matt made his own sweater - I found a felt reindeer gift bag that he took apart to make this masterpiece... I made my own too plus headband and earrings. There wasn't an ugly sweater to be found at the thrift store - I guess we better start shopping year round!

Visit with Sophie

I have known Sophie for 22 years, since we met playing Freshman basketball at Ponderosa - hard to believe how much time has gone by!  I love that I have friends where we can pick up where we left off and have a great visit. And I love that eventually, all roads lead to Las Vegas!

She was in town with her husband Ryan for the rodeo - they both competed in roping events at the SouthPointe this year, so we went down to visit and see the horses. And yet again, the dust and hay sent me into an allergic reaction that lasted for hours after the fact, but it is always worth it to see Sophie. The kids were fascinated with the horses and asked her a ton of questions - these city kids were loving it!

More Family Photos - December 2014