Our Christmas

We were excited this year to be able to have our family Christmas on Christmas morning.  Neither side of our family had plans that morning, so it worked out perfectly.  

Monroe's two big gifts were a Little Tikes slide and a Sesame Street kitchen.  We haven't decided if we are going to do the Santa thing yet, so, for now, these were from Mommy and Daddy.  We figure we have one more year before we have to make the decision to celebrate with Santa or not.

Monroe coming around the corner

Excited smile

Heading for the loot

Elmo, Abby, and Cookie Monster talk and sing songs when she feeds them and presses buttons.  

After playing with her kitchen, she headed for the slide.  

I was a little nervous that the slide would be too young for her, but it seems to be perfect.  Instead of stairs, she has to climb up rocks, which she struggles with at times.  And the slide, although small, goes really fast. She loves to stand on the bridge and "drive".

Merry Christmas to our big girl!

Burkle Christmas

Jess and Rod hosted Christmas for our family this year.  Before heading to Lincoln, we had to buy Monroe snow pants and boots because we knew we'd be out in the snow.

Jensen

Megan and Samara

Monroe trying to walk

Sawyer

The kids loved playing on the trampoline.  Uncle Yeah made it snow on them as they jumped.

Then, we went sledding down their hill.

Kaiya and Karter loved it!

Grandma took a trip down

I love Kaiya's face in the background.

Josh, Samara, and Monroe

That night, we had a soup-off.  My mom and dad made Creamy Roasted Eggplant Soup, Zach made Mexican Vodka Soup, Josh and Megan made Asian Vegetable Beef, and Zach and I made Wild Rice and Mushroom Soup.  Jess and Rod were the judges.  We ended up all voting, and Zach and I won.  

Soup-off Champions 2012

After dinner we opened the kids' presents.

Samara opening presents for the very first time

The girls

Jensen with his new microphone

Karter loved his new easel from Grandma and Grandpa

We tried to get a cousin picture

Monroe with her latches board

Noah's ark

After we put the kids to bed, the adults opened our presents.  One cool gift that we got from my parents was this picture frame.  It has pictures of us four siblings over about 15 years.  

The next morning at breakfast

For lunch on Sunday, we had Christmas dinner.  Rod made prime rib that he smoked all day.  It was delicious!  

That night we took some family pictures.

Grandma and Grandpa with their five grandkids

One request I had for the weekend was that we take a sibling picture.  This was easier said than done, because we tried 10 different poses before getting a good picture.

This was my favorite. I think I am going to add it to the picture frame from my parents.

Megan, Samara, Kaiya, and Josh

Jess, Rod, Jensen, and Karter 

(Team Schulz)

The next morning, Zach was teaching Karter (kindergartner) how to play war.  At one point during the game, Zach seized the perfect moment to teach Karter division.  It gave us a good laugh.

Before going home, we all went to the YMCA. My mom, sister, and I went to one of Megan's Zumba classes.  She became an instructor about a month ago, so we wanted to see her in action.  I am so glad we went.  Megan is a complete natural.  She had fun, and made it fun for all of us.

We had a wonderful weekend celebrating Christmas with my family.