Back in August when everyone was here for Natalie's baptism, we decided that we needed to get together around Christmas/New Years as the big Poulsen family again, but weren't sure where to meet. We had just done Cheyenne, and at that point no one else really had a house that could accommodate everyone, so we settled on renting a house in Lindon, UT (near Provo) which was more or less a central gathering place for everyone. We arrived on December 30th and spent 3 nights/days together, and it was the best!
Since it's the age of coronavirus, we knew that we would be spending almost all of our time staying at the house, so we brought TONS of activities, games, puzzles, etc. One morning the kids painted on canvases and it was so cute! (keep an eye out for more painting pictures below)
^^this is at Grandma Poulsen's house in Ogden before we met in Lindon...such a cute picture!
I loved the setup of the rental house! There was a fireplace sitting room (with the Christmas tree that we brought....you can't celebrate Christmas without the tree!) and then another family room attached to it, so you still felt like you were together if you were in either of those rooms but you could spread out. Plus the TV was in that side family room so it wasn't as distracting to those in the kitchen/living room. The downstairs was similar with a big gathering room, and then bedrooms off at the end of the hall.
The first night was about the kids' presents and they had so much fun opening gifts with their cousins!
Natalie immediately got into her rock painting kit (and shared with Ashlee), and Jack enlisted the help of Makall and Noah to do his new puzzle.
Natalie and Jack brought their robes that they had gotten for Christmas, and they were passed around mostly between Katara and Makae haha. Natalie won that round of Happy Salmon (a silly card game that we like to play).
Claire slinking down the stairs (with her poor forehead bandage...more on that later)
Grandpa sneaking up on Natalie
Another round of Happy Salmon
Grandma and Grandpa brought these funny glasses for new year's eve
We'll have to get Natalie and Ash some new matching nightgowns...these are going to be too small next time!
We celebrated New Year's Eve and it was fun to ring in the new year together! We did a puzzle and watched the end of Home Alone 2 waiting for midnight so we could all just go to bed haha. Drank a little Martinelli's and called it good!
Maybe next year Makae will have a NYE date? : )
The kids (and Noah and Austin) enjoyed the hot tub in the backyard
Painting! We had enough canvases for all of us to paint, but we ended up only doing the kids this time. It was a good call to bring the plastic tablecloth.
The lid came off of the huge ottoman in the family room and the kids filled it with blankets and called it the hot tub haha. Grandpa got in on the action!
It is sweet to see Makall's baby bump in these pictures and know that her little Jonathon is here now!!
^^notice Stockton in the background jumping in excitement as he looks at the huge fire extinguisher that was provided by the house
We played some minute to win it games one morning...Claire was especially excited about spooning the orange balls into the cups.
Cookies on the forehead...
^^^this is why I don't do family pictures very often, even though we really need an updated one....it's so hard to get everyone looking nice, looking at the camera, and actually smiling!
Our car was more full than I've ever seen it before on a road trip! We had a huge tote of activities for Lindon, plus our giant Christmas tree taking up half the trunk, and then suitcases and presents and whatever else. The kids were good sports about being squished in around all of their stuff! My mom helped us bring stuff to Lindon in her van too because after we got groceries and unpacked/repacked in Salt Lake before Lindon, our van was just too full!
I love these scenes of family mingling! I think this was our first night at the house having brats for dinner.
Makae and Jack doing some early morning yoga haha. Makae was a good sport and did some quick dance cardio workouts with me too!
Claire's poor forehead : ( She got the stitches out (Goose did it!) while we were there and it looked much less intense.
We did silly string in the basement, along with pool and movies and a workout room.
Keep the cotton ball on the spoon in your mouth game, and Claire pulling the balloon tail everywhere in her diaper haha
Examples of the cute little signs we made to put on the bedroom doors for some extra festivity!
Claire and Austin stayed like this on the floor for a while haha. We were all pretty tired!
I got to play Progressive with Grammy Bee, Annie, and my cousin Emily. Jack was interested in how to play...someday, Jack!
Stockton loved the fire and kept pulling the ottoman over to be able to sit right in front.
Claire got hold of a jar of marbles and had a marvelous time scattering them all over and then plinking them into the jar, only to scatter them everywhere again. I love that this picture captures how focused she is on her task.
After Claire went to sleep I had some good piano therapy time, playing all of the old classics that we love. I hadn't noticed this before or maybe I used a different copy, but I noticed that Grandpa Bee had written "I love you" over the theme at the bottom of the first page of the Brahms A Major Intermezzo that he loved so much. I will always think of that as the "I love you" theme now! He would be so happy to know that his music is still being used and appreciated.
We wrapped up the night with takeout Chinese (Austin says it's the best General Tso's he's ever had!) and a late-night Swig run before we played Mario Party with Sam and Krispy. As always, I am so grateful for Grammy Bee's house. It has been a gathering place for our family and friends for decades, and it has a special spirit about it. If it ever is sold out of our family, I hope I can somehow bottle the smell!
These pictures are out of order and are from lots of different phones, but you get the general idea:
But I love how our big family picture turned out!!
The girls having some movie time in our bedroom.
Stockton in the "hot tub" and lots of us crammed on the huge couch in the TV room
Natalie put the filter on this one haha ^^
Katara snuggles!! I love being an aunt!
Cutie cousins all in a row
There were bikes in the garage at the house and I took a quick neighborhood ride one afternoon. It was amazingly refreshing and joyful!! I loved the foggy mountain view.
I don't have pictures of this, but since we weren't together for Christmas Eve we decided to do the traditional Poulsen Chinese food for New Year's Eve instead. I wasn't up to taking Claire to a busy restaurant so close to her bed time so I stayed home, and Afton and Kyler stayed home too, and as much fun as it was to have the house constantly in motion and noise, Afton and I both felt like we took a deep breath when the house was empty and quiet. Claire had a fabulous time running around the whole house with her new Tangled microphone playing songs, so I always knew where she was, and Kyler enjoyed his simple song videos on youtube. We ended up having some errands to run, so we had a nice little outing too. Claire was thrilled to sit in Ashlee's front-facing carseat! Everyone had a good time at the Chinese buffet too, and brought us home some delicious food.
It was a super super fun time together just chatting and playing and eating and enjoying. We opened presents three nights in a row....the first night was for the kids, the second was our sibling gift exchange, and the last night was a white elephant exchange. It was great to extend the Christmas celebration over multiple days and have so much time to just be TOGETHER.
We came back to Grammy Bee's house for the rest of the day and spent the night before leaving the next morning for home. Jack was very excited to tell Mimi all about our Lindon activities!
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