Christmas Eve in Battle Ground

On Christmas Eve the temperature stayed above freezing and there was no snow the night before, so we chained up the van and went to Battle Ground (Washington) to be with Earl's family. Almost all of Earl's siblings live in the Portland/Vancouver area so our kids got to see most of their cousins and aunts and uncles on the Pierce side. We had an early dinner, played some games, and opened presents. Our drive to and from Earl's parents house was thankfully uneventful until we drove into our neighborhood. No snowplows come through so quite a bit of snow and ice had built up on the sides of the tracks where the cars drive. There was enough of an edge that trying to cross over the tracks to get into our driveway was too much and our van got stuck (we had taken the chains off to drive on the freeway because it was clear of snow). We managed to get through to our garage after nearly 30 minutes! The several hours of car time (nearly 4 hours round trip) was worth it to see family and our kids always enjoy time at Grandma's house.

Jill is always better at taking pictures at family gatherings than I am so I copied this picture of Ethan, Allison and Tyson from her blog. Thanks Jill.

Phillip, Ethan, and Ryan playing Christmas bingo.

Tyson helping Grandpa Pierce play bingo. I'm not sure how helpful he was, but Tyson did eat a lot of M&Ms.

This year we had the cousins exchange gifts for the first time. Allison received this bead set from Talitha. That's A LOT of beads.

Mallory gave Ethan a Lego car and this martian matter kit.

Tyson was very excited to open the box and find this Curious George stuffed animal from Jeremy. Curious George is Tyson's favorite TV show so this was a perfect gift.