A Munk Family Christmas Break

This year we hosted, a family reunion of sorts. Jon's brother, Dave got back from his mission on Dec. 21. For the last year or so Jon's mom had been talking about renting a cabin between Christmas and New Years so we could all get together and visit and have a little vacation. After we rented this house, we thought, it would be much better financially at least to just have everyone stay here. We have a lot more space and plenty of bedrooms to house everyone.  Jason and Kari and their baby came to stay on the 26th, and Emily came up a couple days later. So we had seven extra people here for most of the week.

It was a fun week to spend with everyone. Generally, the time between Christmas and New Years can be pretty boring. Jon's company gave everyone the week off, which was soo nice. Last year, he had to work.

Emily took this pic of the tree and I really like it!

Originally, we expected to do a lot of snow activities, snow shoeing, sledding, skiing. This day we were going to go to the rec center and play soccer at the indoor field, but the weather was so nice and warm, March weather so we went to the school and the boys played football.

Zac kicking the ball

It was trying to read-but kept getting distracted

It was soooo nice to have the projector. It really made movie time and video games so much fun! There was lots of racing that week.

It rained, instead of snowed one day

Apple cider-their favorite! I make it almost every morning for them :)

Playing games with Poppa

Brothers

Oh, the day after Christmas, we bought a tv....finally. It been nice to watch netflix on it :)

Emily did a tea party one afternoon. Yummy and pretty cake! Cozy tea, and buttery cookies!

Zac also got a science kit this year for Christmas. He loves and asks to do science all the time.  I just wish I was better at sitting down with him to do it. This experiment we learned about bases and acids and the colors and fizzing that they make.

Christmas Morning

Christmas landed on a Sunday this year, which was actually pretty nice. I just wish we had more time to relax and play with the boys new toys.

We had to set the alarm to make sure we'd get up in time. And the boys weren't even up-we had to wake them up!

The door was all "ribboned" up in the morning.

Santa's Surprises! The boys got just what they asked Santa for! Yet, my silly boys go straight for the cookies and milk to see what Santa ate!

Max was completely oblivious to the "two wheeled scooter" that he's been looking forward to getting all season. We had to point it out to him a few times as he was checking out his stocking and didn't even notice the scooter.

Zac was excited for his skateboard. And he tried it out with daddy last Saturday (it was around 45-50 degrees here-beautiful!) He did a great job and kept his balance pretty well. We got him wrist guards and pads and everything so I think that helped with his bravery. Jon and I were both impressed with how well he did. Maybe I'll get pictures later.

Haha! I love how tired they were

He hasn't noticed the scooter yet

Manual transmission cufflinks-now he just needs a shirt to wear them with!

I made Monkey Bread for breakfast and I think we'll do this every year for Christmas.  Its sooo easy, and soo good! And no morning prep. I did it all the night before and put it together with frozen rolls-YES!!! And the timing worked perfectly too.

I also wanted to make this, but I was just toooooo tired the night before and not enough time in the morning, maybe next year.

We just opened our Santa stuff and then got ready for church. After church we got to open the rest.

This year, and probably with many more years to come, Zac's stuff was smaller and more pricey that Max's. I worried that Zac would be comparing the box sizes so I gag wrapped one of his. He thought it was pretty fun.

Box 1

Box 2

Box 3

I didn't even take a pic of the final gift! I was not very on it this year with pics. This is what he got, an Autoblox. And actually after showing Jon what I was planning to get the boys, he wanted one really bad. In fact, I believe it was the only thing he had on his list!! Which sure made it hard for me to shop for him!

Max got a little laptop. Zac got one last year, and Max loves it. Now they can play side by side.

Zac got this cool gear set. I haven't had the pleasure of playing with it or seeing them play with it yet.

Zac got a cool space book. When I was in high school I really wanted to work for NASA, and I love that Zac is getting into how cool science is.

Apparently, I didn't take any more pictures of the day :( . Jon got some new ski pants, Forza 4 a car racing video game, a zippo hand warmer and some other things. And I got an immersion blender :), new slippers, a novel, new clothes and some other useful things on my list. 

It turned out to be quite a busy day. We had about 2 hrs of down time after cleaning up all the Christmas paper and boxes and putting the toys away. We hosted Christmas Dinner for my family. (Don't ask me why I keep hosting this big holiday dinners when I'm pregnant. It just happens that way. But luckily, things went smoothly and it wasn't too exhausting and as always: Jon is a huge help. I really wish I had gotten some pictures. I rarely take pics at dinners, there is just so much going on it doesn't happen, unless I'm doing nothing for a long period of time. The food was great and it was fun to open presents with them on Christmas. We also rented a projector from BYU and watched a movie down stairs. 

About half hour after my family left and we put the boys to bed, Jon headed to the airport to get his parents and his brother Dave. I went to bed and they got home shortly after midnight, I think. 

Christmas Eve

This year, I didn't help decorate the tree hardly at all, (did I mention this already on here? I seriously, ask myself this question several times a week when I'm talking to people..."did I tell you this already?" -My mind is so gone!) still I think the boys did a pretty good job on the tree.

I'm starting to add some lime green elements to it and I like it even better.

The last few years we've done our tradition of having a Bethlehem dinner and brown paper gifts, which consist of pjs and churchy things. It seems I struggle each year to find something age appropriate for the boys' church gift. At this age, i mostly want to find something that will help them stay quiet and reverently entertained for half of sacrament (the other half they are sitting quietly listening-or that is the goal at least :)

Max was sooo excited to open his Mickey pajamas.

Cute boys-They LOVE new pjs at any time of the year. Zac is starting to recognize the tradition of getting them every year on Christmas Eve so thats fun.

While searching online for churchy ideas, I found the file folder game concept. I first heard about this some years ago and wanted to make some sooooo bad for Zac. But I didn't know where the get the stuff and was just hoping thats some day the Enrichment committee would do an activity. But of course that never happened.

I got them some little church themed puzzles. They are really starting to get into puzzles and I'm surprised how good Max is.

Also, there is a website, greenjellowithcarrots.com where I bought the image files. I printed them at a shop, cut them out, and got them laminated. The boys really like them. I also like that they teach tithing, and counting and other things.

This one has pieces where you can "build" the SLC temple.  I may do more of these next year? It did turn out to be a little more work that I expected. But luckily, I got them all done the afternoon of Christmas Eve.

Milk and Cookies

This pic would have gone with the "Putting Christmas Up" post, but I was lazy and didn't feel like doing it yet. I didn't put these garlands up til the week or 2 before Christmas. I got news ones this year-finally.  I like that they are lit and I really like the pics I put in them...I suppose I could've taken a picture of that. It was just a little more glitz: leaves, berries and snowflakes, in silver, red and lime.

I love how festive Christmas decor makes the house feel.

Zac's Gingerbread House

This year in school, Zac's class learned about the structure and contraction of gingerbread houses. These are pics another mom took.

Zac's is in the upper right corner, with the red and black tree (which he was pretty bummed about since all the green frosting was gone.)

I'm glad he got to do this at school, because it didn't happen around here. I even had supplies :( We always have next year.

Neighbor Gifts

Dec 19 --
I eating some rollo pretzel bites some years back, and even since have wanted to make them. This year I decided that's what we'd do for our neighbor treats. It was pretty fun, easy, fairly quick and they are yummy! I bought a TON of pretzels my estimation was WAY off. And I bought several bags of rollos (I should have bought more). The boys liked helping to unwrap the rollos. Zac put the rollos on the pretzels too. Preheat the over to 350 and bake for 3 minutes. Then add an M&M to the top and press down. Chill til set.

Max had to finish his dinner before he could help...here are his M&M incentives

All the rollo foil wrappers

Jon was the best and quickest at pushing the M&M's down

I also bought a bag of hugs to see how they would work

I had so many pretzel that I decided to buy more rollos after Christmas and make these for a New Year's Eve treat. As per Jon's suggestion, I bought some peanut butter M&M to see how much they would taste like Take 5 candy bars. Pretty good! (But of course we made sure to do plenty with out the peanut butter for the boys).