We had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

December was so much fun but tends to be a little exhasting!

(Both boys sound asleep on the floor after a late night)

The boys started the month off by having a sleep over in the craft room.

They LOVE having sleepovers, and always bring Chena and Douglas along.
Oh, Christmas tree!
We LOVE fresh trees for Christmas, but they don't seem to last long enough.
They sure do smell good though.
We endured some cold temps. in December, but found ways to stay warm.

We did a few Christmas crafts here and there to get into the spirit.

And of course, we drove up the road to see good Ol' Santa

Hunter asked for an ax and a spear (nerf style) and Chance asked for race cars and a hammerhead shark.

The night that Geek came to visit, we were all pitching in to clean up our house. However, Chance didn't want to do his share so he got supervised toilet duty!

(He did a darn good job too)

We saved making and decorating sugar cookies for when Geekarama showed up. This is McGee family tradition from Kelly's side. So, we ate and decorated and ate, ate, ate. YUMMY!

All of Kelly's cookies were very artistic and included Dodger or Bronco Logos made out of sprinkles.

"mmm....my favorite!"

I got to be Chancey's lovely assistant.

When I was done helping him frost, I let him at it with the sprinkling part of things.

He went a little wild!!!!

Or maybe REALLY wild!!!

Only in Alaska would this girl go out of the house like

THIS

Christmas Eve was lovely, filled with Christmas crab, baked potatoes, virgin strawberry daquiris and a big yummy veggie tray.

Kelly and Marianne

Huntoo and Dad

Chanceroni and Da being pigs

McGee Family 2010

Hunter is a crab eating machine

Geek doesn't really like having to work so hard for her dinner.

"Break that leg!"

As tradition would have it, Grandma Briner sent the boys new jammy bottoms.

Chance had "Cars" on his

Hunter had "Wow Wow Wubzy" shapes on his

Christmas morning is always so much fun with our two little guys.

But, after Santa gifts were sifted through we had a furry surprise for the boys.

We made them shut their eyes while we put these on their heads:

FOX HATS
Made from fox that Kelly trapped in Bethel.

Chance loves being Buzz flying all over the house.

Isn't it funny how kids want to sleep with their new toys.

Hunter slept with his Ax

Chance slept with his Mace

Several days after Christmas we decided to build a town out of the new Lincoln Logs, and then some tinker toys and legos. It was great until Hunter bombed EVERYTHING!

Kelly and I being a little "FOXY"

We had to make sure we got a picture of Marianne in a fur.

The boys keeping the trapper spirit alive!

Marianne took these pictures of the boys. I think she couldn't believe that I was letting the boys wear these hats in public.

Hunter wore his hat into Wal-Mart and got a zillion compliments on the hat.

It was a hit!

We wanted to do something different for New Years, so we went to a hotel just down the hill from us and went swimming, hot tubbing, and playing.

It was great! We ate Chinese food for dinner, watched a few fireworks out our hotel window, and went to sleep. It was a great way to bring in the new year.

Geek and Her Guys!

Geek and Her Guys

The Formal Version

We loved having Marianne her for Christmas, it made it feel more Christmas like since it is about family and love. She was a good sport and endured the cold, the dark, and two rowdy boys.

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving week was kind of a funny one. Monday morning Kelly left for work and it took him 1 hour and 45 minutes to get to work!!! YIKES!!! It usually only takes him 15-25 minutes to get to work, but we had FREEZING RAIN. For those of you who don't know what that is, here is a picture.

This is a pure sheet of ice on the road in front of our house. Kids were literally ice skating in their ice skates down the street. Funny! Anyhow, so we had a ton of snow in Fairbanks the week before and then of course they plowed the road. Well, then it got warm ~30-35 degrees and rained on top of our beautiful snow. So, it made every road, parking lot, driveway a sheet of ice. They cancelled school (NEVER happens here), closed the military base (has NEVER happened EVER), and state offices closed. Needless to say, after Kelly's drive to work and drive home, Sam's Club Pharmacy was closed Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday for the holiday. We couldn't leave our house!!! The main roads got taken care of, but the little back roads like ours stayed bad till it got cold and snowed again.

Now for Thanksgiving morning.... We woke up and watched the Macy's day parade (not Kelly he HATES parades) and started making a few things like the rolls for our dinner. I had DVR'd the parade because it started before we woke up so we could fast forward through commercials and all the silly commentary.

The boys both helped do a few things to get ready for dinner. Chance made the grape juice to go into our punch. He is very helpful and enjoys helping and tasting in the kitchen.

After the parade was over the boys in our house (all three) played video games and ate a ton of veggies and dip.

Hunter has really found a love for red bell peppers.

Chance and I decided it would be fun to dress up like the pilgrims and the indians, so we made ourselves some little costumes.

Momma and her boys

Dad and his buddies

I'm not sure what is up with the serious faces.

My indian boy playing his indian drum that he painted.

This is a picture of Hunter being "full".

Chance said he was full too, so this was his "full" face.

This is our Gratitude Turkey for the year. I decided to stick with the orange/yellow color this year and I think it turned out beautifully.

The funniest thing about our whole Thanksgiving happened while we were all laying in bed in the morning. The boys got into bed with us and were trying to get us up, but instead we all stayed in bed and talked. Kelly shared with us the Thanksgiving story. He told about the King who wouldn't let people make their own choices, and he wanted them to believe and act a certain way and he wanted everyone's money. Well, Hunter pipes up and says, "Hey, that sounds like Obama!!" Kelly and I were laughing so hard that I snorted!

Last but not least, I wanted to share Chancey's "costume of the month". This kid comes marching into the kitchen looking like this. I love him so much! What a guy!!