We had a simply wonderful Christmas in Montana with tons of family time, game and good food. All the photos from our trip are already up on Facebook, but just so I can continue the blog-memory-book for myself I'm putting them up here too.
The mansion was in full Christmas spirit and I neglected to capture all of the splendor in photos but here's the front of the mansion (this does it no justice!)
Christmas eve marked the family tradition of having everyone go to the Christmas Eve service and returning home for a feast and a $10 gift exchange. Nancy and Vicky got into it in the kitchen while prepping the mashed potatoes and green beans.
The guys awaited the feast out in the library by the tree (tree 1 of 11 in the house this year).
The table was set and all 22 of us gathered around to celebrate the season and the delicious meal!
Thanks to Grandma Bowler we were able to dine on some AMAZING crab from Alaska!
After dinner, the kiddos got to open one present from to tide them over while the "adults" participated in the gift exchange. My cousin's kids, Cypress and Kale, are below opening their gifts--wide eyed and excited by the size of the boxes!
Kale got so excited, he collapsed on the floor :)
The wrapping was taken off but Kale still didn't know what it was! But honestly, he didn't care. He just liked that the box was so big :).
My cousin-in-law Kim got to open up a gift from Grandma for great-granddaughter Johanna.
Then the real fun started as we began our $10 gift exchange. The rules were that all of us were supposed to bring a give worth no more than $10 and we exchange kind of like a white-elephant gift. However, the gifts are all things that are desirable (not a gag gift) and you can only steal them twice. After all the gifts are exchanged we have a 15 minute round of rolling the dice. If you roll doubles you can steal any gift you want. At the end of the 15 minutes, whatever gift you have is yours to keep. This gifts were wrapped in all sorts of fashions to try to deceive the gift-receiver of the contents.
Mom got her "baby-fix" for a little while at least by holding Johanna for the evening.
Grandma and Kaylee were looking as cute as ever while sitting on the radiator cushion to keep warm.
Here was one of the gifts: Bacon-flavored popcorn complete with a cute little popcorn bowl. And, apparently, it's gluten free?
This was a highly coveted gift- a hand made "Go Griz" mug made by my cousin's co-worker.
But, throughout the exchange and all the "stealing" of gifts, Uncle curt wound up with this hand-made cowl by my aunt Vicky-- he didn't know what it was or how to wear it :)
Here he is soliciting Tom's advice on how he should wear it.
By the end of it all, Curt and Jean ended up with gifts they would each never use. Curt got the cowl and Jean got a 4-pack of Montana Cold-smoke beer. Hah!
Vicky had to show him how it was supposed to be worn. Do you think he'd go for it?
He looks surprised, and warm!
There was a BIG surprise in the gift exchange this year--someone snuck a $100 bill into the gifts this year. We still don't know who it was and we decided we didn't want to know. But, as you can imagine the dice-round of stealing became a lot more intense this year. Here you can see as Cody and Curt exchanged the cowl present for the $100 just to have to turn around and exchange it right back because Cody rolled doubles right after Curt did
The following morning, we gathered around in the parlor again to open stockings and a few extra gifts from grandma to her great-grandson Owen. He was sleepy on Christmas morning and wasn't sure what to do with a present bigger than him!
Tyler (aka Dad) had to help him out, and once the box was exposed, Owen knew what to do.
After the morning stockings, it was time to feast again. This time, eggs benedict, hashbrowns and french toast (for people like me that have more of a sweet tooth).
Look at that home-made deliciousness!
Tom was LOVING it!
We had to walk off that huge breakfast so we set out for Blue mountain for a walk with the pups and and the whole family. Owen got to don his snow suit for the afternoon.
Here's the whole gang out for the walk.
Owen got to experience the sled for the first time too-- he kept turning around to see all of us walking behind him and was just the cutest thing!
He decided he had enough time in the sled though and wanted to walk around on his own- complete with mom's gloves.
Could you get much cuter?
Here is the view from our walk-a gorgeous, sunny Christmas day.
We remembered this time to get a group photo, but sadly it doesn't include Grandma and a whole Bowler family. Maybe well photo-shop them in?
We loved the sunshine!
And Peyton had a blast chasing sticks and romping around in the snow.
Christmas evening brought about even more gifts as we finally had a chance to exchange gifts with Grandma and with our immediate family members.
Peyton got a big present from Santa too.
She LOVED them!
Tom and I certainly got spoiled this year. Here's the HUGE thermos we got :)
And tom was treated to a wonderful new easel for setting up his white board in the apartment for studying. The one he had was so wobbly we never used it--well, he's ready now!
Then came my most treasured gift: a "doctor's bag" from Kristi and Tyrell. I needed something to carry around with me in the hospital in my upcoming third year of medical school where I will be rotating from hospital to hospital for 6-12 weeks at a time. Kristi went through the bag and placed little labels of where all my tools can go and also included so many special notes and helpful items for me.
One of the best items in the bag: a template for taking notes for each patient I see. I have been scouring the internet for a template that I would find most useful and I've been experimenting with a few of them during my interviews with patients this year. I had yet to find one I loved so what could be better than a template used by my sister--who thinks and works so much like I do?!
Complete with pen light for checking pupil reactions :) - She thought of everything from snacks to chapstick, Kleenexes and a few bucks and change to pay a parking meter if I need. It was AMAZING!
Another favorite gift-- this adorable little tea infuser that has a frog on a lily pad on top--floating in my cup to keep me company.
Then yesterday we decided to get out and do something a little different so we went bowling as a family! Tom was bummed that he didn't have his own ball and shoes, so he had to make do with a house ball.
He may not have like his score, but I think he did just fine for using a ball he's not used to!
Mom was ecstatic because it was the first time she had ever beat my dad in bowling. Typically my dad crushes all of us, but he had a particularly unlucky game that night and my mom took full advantage of rubbing it in :)
As we wind down our trip (preparing to fly back to Seattle tomorrow evening) we feel so incredibly blessed to have been here and to see and spend time with so much family. It was a blast and we wish it could never end. For now, we will enjoy the last few moments at the mansion, including this years absolutely stunning Christmas tree!
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