Gingerbread House

We got out of school a full week before Christmas, so we saved the gingerbread house to do that week.  

Burkle Christmas

The weekend before Christmas, we got together with my side of the family.  We hadn't all been together since Covid hit.  We decided to just gather for a few hours and wear masks.

Such cuties!

Whoever is hosting the celebration decides what we do for gifts.  Typically kids buy for kids and adults buy for adults.  Josh and Megan had such a fun idea this year.  They assigned kids to adults and adults to kids.  This made the gift opening so much more fun.  In the past, the kids would have opened their gifts and then run off to play.  This year, everyone was engrossed with the next gift, and the kids were so proud!

The boys got an awesome racetrack and a bunch of cars from two of their aunts. 

Zach and I got personalized books for Finley and Samara.  Finley's is a search and find and Samara's is a journal.

Monroe got fake glasses with lenses and new shoes from her Uncle Rod

Pierce got Megan personalized socks with Rosy's face

A calendar of pooping pooches from Monroe

Jumbo dice for Yahtzee from Graham

Jensen got Zach some glasses for his bar and a table basketball game that's really fun.

Finley got me a exercise jump rope, flavored coffee, and Space Jam the movie

Emryn, the youngest, had Rod.  She got him a lovey (stuffed animal).  When they went to the store to go shopping, she told her dad that Rod needed a lovey.  It was the sweetest thing.

My dad loves tapioca pudding

Out of the four of us kids, three of us don't like being touched.  (And we all have very touchy spouses.) So, my sister got us socks that say:  "Free Hugs" on one, and "Just kidding. Don't touch me." on the other.

While we were posing for a picture with our socks, my dad gave us a gift of the game Racko.  We played this all the time at my Grandma's house growing up.  It was a sweet gift.  

Pierce and Graham got a soccer ball and goal from Grandma and Grandpa.

Monroe got a pogo stick (the only thing she actually asked for this Christmas)

We got my mom a plant hanger.  She has so many plants, but none of them are hanging.

 We got my dad slippers and flavored coffee.

Mom and I went and bought pots and plants for her hanger.  Isn't this awesome!  Now I need one.

We stayed a couple days with my parents and got to see all of my siblings more during the weekend.  It was really nice.  

Also, if you have a large family with a fairly even number of kids and adults, I would highly recommend doing gifts the way we did this year.  It was so fun!