Moves Like Jagger (this will make your day!)

Aunt Tessa's new game is so much fun!

This girl has some pretty good moves:) 

Pridgeon Christmas 2012

We drove down to the farm late on Christmas Eve, so this was the first year that we ever woke up there for Christmas day.  It was fun:) Nikki made us a really good breakfast at their house, then we went back to Matt's parents house to open gifts.  

Kate was very excited to give her grandma a handmade gift:

She was also really into taking off bows (she did this at home constantly - most of our gifts had bows removed by Kate's sweet little hands multiple times before they made it to their recipients) and helping rip off the paper.  Each piece of paper, no matter how small, was handed to someone until she got it all off:)

checking out daddy's new shades

loving a new book - she has to get right down next to it:)

Matt and I got this awesome baby backpack - we can't wait to take Kate hiking!
She's excited too, can't you tell?

The day after Christmas was pretty low-key.  Tessa and I went to the outlet mall and found some great deals, we got to see some extended family, the boys tried out Paul's new Battleship Shooting Range game, and we played Bang!

Tatum and Kate are only a few days apart, it
was fun to see what each of them were up to.

The Sheriff needed all the help he could get

busy girl, working hard on pushing a few more teeth through

Kate was a total nut for the 30 minutes before we left that night, and I have some of her silliness on video.  I'll add it sometime:)

Merry Christmas!!!

Christmas Eve 2012

For as long as Matt and I have been married, we've celebrated Christmas with the Kadzbans on Christmas Eve and with the Pridgeons on Christmas Day.  Since Andy and Sam are in New Jersey now and have church obligations there, we won't be celebrating Christmas with my family until they can come back to Michigan later.  But we still spent the day with my parents and brothers, went to church, and had a really good meal together.  We even snuck one gift each:)

Kate loves playing with my parent's nativity scene

"Let me pull off your bow" 

"I'll rip the paper too!"

"Here, let me help you!"

relaxing with daddy to read a new book:)

friends

Friends are such a blessing.

A few of our friends were traveling to see family for Christmas last weekend and made an overnight stop in Grand Rapids to hang out.  We had breakfast with Matt's college roommates (and wives and kids), then I spent the afternoon with my college roommates (and their kids), then we had everyone over for chili that night.  What a busy, but great day!

daddies and babies:)

We took advantage of Santa's chair while he was away:) How hard is it to get 3 kids to look at the same camera? Extremely! There are some cute ones, though.

Leyla, Haven, Jonah and Kate

Kate LOVED the goldfish and the big train set that was on display.

Kate and Jonah are a few months older than the last time they saw each other, and they actually interacted a little bit this time:)

Jonah liked Kate's bow

Kate did not like Jonah playing with her toys:(

Em and Leyla were down from Alma and they stayed the night at our house.  Baby Leyla was only 2 months old and it was so fun to hold such a little one again:) Thanks to everyone who traveled to make this happen, we loved seeing you.  Merry Christmas!

party party

We had a really fun Christmas party with friends this year.  Mark and Allison hosted a Christmas cookie exchange/dinner/watching of our favorite movie, White Christmas.  Kate hung out with my parents and older brother for the night, and it was fun to spend some time with friends without kids.

We had some very yummy appetizers...

Allison made corn chowder, pork chili, and vegan butternut squash bisque (back row), and I made Italian chicken soup and zuppa toscana (front row).  We all ate a lot of soup:)

In true Johnson style, we played a ridiculous game after dinner.  This one was called "deck the balls", and each couple competed to see how many ping pong balls they could catch in Christmas gift bags while sitting on the couch and keeping both feet on the floor.  Congrats to the Stobs for winning:)

Mark shot the balls with this crazy thing!

While we watched White Christmas, we ate Christmas cookies and drank homemade hot chocolate.  Here's a sampling of some of the cookies...

toppings for our hot chocolate bar:)

Here's the recipe I used for hot chocolate, and it was very good.  I'd highly recommend it:

2 cups unsweetened cocoa
3/4 cup sugar
8 cups milk
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine cocoa, sugar and 1.5 cups milk over medium heat.  Once mixture is combined, add the remaining milk and chocolate chips.  Stir until chocolate is incorporated.

Yay for friends and fun! Merry Christmas!