The Second Oregon Trip: Christmas Part II

There are way too many pictures for one post from the Oregon trip, so "Parts" it is! This is mostly for my own sake, so bear with me. If you get sick of Oregon trip pictures, wait a week or two (not because there are that many pictures, but because I am that slow) and we'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming. ;)

When we found out my sister would be having her baby so early, we forwent getting a tree this year, simply for lack of time. Besides, if I were being honest, it seemed like an awful lot of work to buy and decorate a tree that we would enjoy for three or four days before we left. So, instead, we decorated our house to the nines with all but a tree, and my momma promised the boys she wouldn't decorate her tree until we all got there and could all be a part of it. So the night after we arrived, that's just what we did!

At our house, we rotate who gets to hang the star. This year was Collin's year and despite not being at home, he and Drew made sure to let everyone know that it was Collin's year to hang it. My parents and sisters gladly went along with this.

...and Coll (and Poppi for that matter) were pretty proud of their handiwork when it was all said and done!

Emmikins. The cutest tree decorating assistant! I keep warning the boys that one day Emmie and Elsie are going to be vying for the tree topping job as well! Just wait till one of them suggests that things should be *gasp* pink for the first time!

The boys did a great job decorating! The ornaments were a bit caddywhompus and pretty "bunchy", but it was perfect! My sweet momma left every ornament exactly where they had been placed, and I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of the finished tree! The center, right about Drew and Collin height, had oodles of ornaments upon ornaments that faded out to just plain sparse at the top and far outsides of the tree. My mom said it brought back memories of when my sisters and I were younger and used to decorate the Christmas tree and I think that's exactly why she left them!

Once we were done decorating, it was straight back to normal (egged on by Poppi) wrestling antics.

A few nights later, we headed out to the cutest tiny town about a half an hour from my parents' house for a Christmas light parade.

It was freezing out, but dry. 

The parade was fairly short (perfect for the boys) and  filled with lights!

They even lit up the horses (and in one rider's case, their dog)!

My favorite: the semi truck

and the semi-trucks' trailer!

The boys' favorite: the old school fire engine...

...and the firefighter who hopped off the back to bring them candy from his helmet.

The rest of our time, aside from a few days, was spent playing at Lala and Poppi's house.

The boys spent tons of time in the jacuzzi. Days for them basically went something like this: play outside, get wet, cold and/or numb, hop in the jacuzzi and warm up, and then do it all over again!

And while they spent most of their time playing, most of mine was spent snuggling these two cute girls! 

Sweet, brand new Elsie

Even Uncle Nathan got in on the snuggling when he arrived a few days before Christmas!

Of course once Daddy and Uncle Burkie arrived, the boys wanted to do "boy things...you know, like shoot BB guns and set bunny traps". Oh, right.

Jenn's minions also came for Christmas. I stand by my original stance that they are the world's worst dogs, but how can you not love this squishy face?? I had to post.

Loved this one too. Tanner loves Auntie Jenn.

On one of the days, we took a quick trip into town because there were reindeer we could visit! Apparently a farm somewhere around Eugene owns a herd of ten reindeer and at Christmas time they bring them two at a time (they don't have to deal with herd antics if they only bring two) into town so that people can see them. They were so cool! 

Dasher. She was actually a female. We kept calling her a "he" because of her antlers, but the woman who owns her corrected us and said the females grow antlers too. Who knew?!

Baby reindeer! 

Frosty was also out, so of course we grabbed a picture!