Post Christmas Park City and New Year's Eve

We went to Park City for just a couple of days a few days later.

For Christmas we had given Merill and Nancy a mystery box.  We spent quite a bit of time working on solving the riddles.  It was a fun group activity.

We did multple puzzles during the two days we were there...

There is always plenty of food and plenty of things for Ben to line up.  He was quite content.

On our way home on New Year's Eve, we stopped in Salt Lake for our first venture ever into Trader Joe's.

Jo and T had brought a bunch of food from TD to our house as gifts and Andy got quite the bug to go to a store for himself.  So, we left the kids in the car for a few minutes and hurried through the store.

We picked up some great finds!  Andy was in heaven :)

He bought these flowers there for me.  They were a very happy spot for me for a few days.

That night, after eating some of the yummies we found at TJ we played games, Abby and I finished a puzzle while we watched When Calls the Heart and then we celebrated with sparkling cider.

Even though they're dark, I love this sequence of pictures as Andy realizes Matt's spraying cider all over the floor when the ball dropped.

Happy New Year from the Bryans!

(Josh went around the rest of the night doing something and then saying it was the first time it was done that decade.)

Christmas Eve/Christmas Day

We gathered at Mom and Dad's for dinner and treats...

Here I am fixing the sink holes in the candles...

There was some game playing...

lining up of dolls...

and festive singing...

The German nativity is always a pleasant tradition...

I realize this picture is from the Sunday before but I had to stick it in...it's so cute of my Matt :)

Christmas morning was lovely.

The kids aren't waking up nearly as early as they used to and are happy to get some extra sleep.

I was actually able to get Ben to pose for a few seconds...

He's rarely in the Christmas morning tree shots because he refuses.

Here are just a bunch of pics of present opening...

Abby excited over some nice colored pencils...

...and some Bob Ross playing cards.

Ben was excited over G&G Olsen's gift of some Sesame Street fluffy balls.

Later that morning we went over to Mom and Dad's for brunch and then went to a movie (Frozen II).  I think that was the first time for the vast majority of us to go to a theater on Christmas.  Dad stayed home with Ben for us.

That evening Abby and T painted their nails...

...we ate more food and played more games.

All of the festivities exhausted Ben...

Back at home...

On Christmas Eve, Abby and T had all but finished this puzzle that T had brought.  They worked very hard on it while we watched multiple Hallmark murder mysteries.  They went to bed with about 20-25 pieces left to go.  Christmas morning we woke up to this little message... (bottom left).  The boys had finished all but one piece and left it for the girls to do.  I guess T had expressed at the end of the night that she was not looking forward to finishing the last pieces because they were all the same color.  We thought that was pretty cute.

Here are Abs and T putting in the last piece and showing off their nails at the same time.

We had a good Christmas.  It was fun having Jo and T with us for 6 days and nights.