when family comes to town!

We were so lucky this year to have all of my immediate family come to our house for a post-Christmas get-together! Having everyone here for the week after New Year's made the holiday feeling last even longer than usual and I loved it! It was the perfect week for extra company because the entire week, the temperature was in the negatives. Thankfully we had gorgeous snow outside to look at every day...and all the outside toys down in the basement so kids could run and run and run. Some days I barely even saw Jake because he was playing in the basement with his cousins all day! I loved that they had a place all to themselves and could do whatever they wanted. It also meant that the adults had some calm in the living room for reading, chatting...and eating. ;) We always eat well when we're together.

Slow mornings spent coloring, reading, crafting...that's my idea of a great time!

'

Occasionally the kids came upstairs for food/crafts/more food, but the majority of the time it looked like this down in the basement...so much going on!

Grandma is learning to play guitar and she captured Jake and Cana's attention for quite some time!

Always lots of wrestling when there are this many boys around!

We had no set plans for the week, deciding to roll with it and see what everyone felt like doing on a particular day. I think everyone needed some down time and relaxation! The only activity determined ahead of time was making gingerbread houses! Its a tradition we started in high school and of course the kids love it, so we couldn't miss it!

We are certainly a family of readers!

....and eaters. ;) Meal prepping was a group activity every night, which I loved!

Mom had requests for her Port Hope muffins so she enlisted some sous chefs to get the job done!

We took over IKEA one morning and it was quite the circus, but so fun!

Our only other venture out of the house (besides sending someone to the grocery store on a daily basis!) was to a coffee and pastry shop in Indianapolis where thankfully Sarah had the thought to get a photo of the three of us, something we hadn't done in a while!

Every so often someone would venture outside but with those negative temperatures, the excursions only lasted a few minutes!

Game nights! Its fun to have a crowd together for games and we introduced the fam to a new game, Sheriff of Nottingham. Highly recommend it!

Probably the most exciting event was when Eli suddenly decided to learn how to walk! He started with just one or two wobbly steps and within ten minutes was trekking across the living room from person to person! 

The whole gang! I feel so fortunate we all had the opportunity to be together for an entire week!