The Christmas Aftermath!

The day after Christmas we took advantage of some nice weather with a hike/walk along the Gallatin.  This gave the kids a chance to try out their new "camel backpacks":

 But mostly it gave them plenty of opportunity to burn off some sugar and be goobers:

 Not surprisingly, Matthew spent most of the time plotting how to get us with snowballs and/or trying to eat all the snow:

 Though he took a moment to contemplate the enormity of life with Uncle Ed:

 Catherine has taken to riding in the sled as if she has been injured or is passed out:

 And we got Pas to sneak in a family photo in front of the Bridgers:

 We ended the day with a nice dinner out thanks to Uncle John!  We hit up Open Range, a new restaurant in Bozeman.  It was a hit with everyone, minus the kiddos who were not all that impressed with the "gourmet" ants on a log and ketchup.  Afterwards we finally stopped to check out a pretty cool set of Christmas lights programmed to music!

 The whole thing exhausted Catherine to the point she didn't even want to put on her PJs!

 We followed up with a day of playing around with our new Christmas toys.

 Some front yard skiing:

 Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to our excellent company but still had lots of fun toys and books that needed reading:

 Putting up the new wall decals from Uncle Matt:

Catherine didn't really want to put hers up herself but was a very particular supervisor with daddy:

136 pieces later, we created a mini-London for Matthew's room!  

 Uncle John had picked up a Catan game for the kids on our last Virginia trip and Mas and Pas brought it out with them this time.  It's is Matthew's new favorite game, though he calls it "Pirate land"

 My lenses was apparently smudgey, but this boy gets absolutely giddy when he buys a parrot tile in the game and/or when he totally beats James and I:

We took advantage of the piles of snow and plentiful sunshine at the end of the year with some "boot skating" with friends.  Catherine gave me a ride around in a chair:

 While Matthew stole a ride with friends by hanging onto their sleds:

 Goobers:

 We topped of the year celebrating the new year with some good friends.  James was pretty excited!

 We actually missed midnight because the kids were busy playing and the adults were, well, busy playing a game.  We eventually gathered all the kiddos for an apple cider toast:

 Complete with hats, leis and noisemakers:

 Plus the random fireworks we've had sitting in the garage: