Kelley Christmas and the Jingle Bell Parade

Took the boys to see the Grand Rapids Griffins Friday night. Chris Chelios was playing with them to get back in shape from his leg injury. It was fun to see him and $10 tickets for fifth row seats plus dollar beer and hot dog specials can't be beat. We are going to try to get to more games soon.

Despite the blowing snow all day, we had lots of fun hosting Kelley Christmas at our house yesterday. Poor Jeff had to shovel the driveway, the snowblower wouldn't start and he had waited until just before company arrived. That was not fun. Hayley made a new friend with Uncle Mark and they shared lunch. The kids played wii in the playroom and didn't even notice the rest of us were eating. It worked well, they were the second shift at the table. Jonathan was not a happy camper that he had two gifts and Matthew was proudly exclaiming he had four. All was well when Jonathan saw there were many gifts inside one! I bonded with cousin Teagen, all it took was my baby doll, a light up Christmas necklace and some webkins to play with. Little girls are so much fun, I told her mom we need to borrow her more often! Grandma was happy to have almost all of the family together (Papa Mark and Grandma Kris are in Arizona and cousin Michael was busy snow plowing) and said we need to have a family picnic in the summer. We're sure up for more gatherings if they are all as easy and fun as this one was!










Then, we bundled up beast and boys and headed downtown for the Jingle Bell Parade. It was snowing like crazy and the wind howling but so pretty and so much fun. The boys got bags full of candy and giveaways. We met up with the Stoepkers and were so busy chatting and watching the parade we didn't take many pictures. It's such a fun parade.





The boys were asleep in less than 10 minutes after getting home. A day full of fun. Today's mission is to find the perfect Christmas tree!! That, and steal, umm borrow, Papa Mark's snowblower. Lucky guy won't need it!