Katrina Henry

new year's eve

We had a great New Year's Eve this year! Kevin & Outi watched our boys with the help of Marylee & Lew, who came over for a visit, so that we could go out with friends!

We met up with Carolyn, Jesse, Brian, Stu & Jacque at PF Chang's for Happy Hour!

Carolyn, Jesse, Brian

Kenton, Katrina, Stu & Jacque

Then we gathered at Stu & Jacque's house for a champagne toast. I stole this photo from Jesse cause it just turned out so great! I love this picture! I love my friends. :)

Here's my much less interesting group shot. Everyone looks great, it just doesn't have the same impact as the first one. ;) We all were wearing crowns that came in some party poppers that Carolyn & Jesse shared with us.

After a bit, we made our way over to Lane County Ice to watch the Eugene Generals' Hockey game. This was our first time watching our local team.

Brrr...it was cold in there! Luckily, they sell VERY tasty hot cocoa in the concession stand. Their fries were delicious too. We might have to go back just for the snacks!

Courtesy smile from Brian! :P

Jacque, Carolyn, Stu & Jesse participated in Huck a Puck. You try to throw a puck into the middle of the rink to be the closest to a hula hoop to win the prize. I think the prize was money, but I missed that part. No one in our group won. :\

Go Generals!

We spent the last 5 minutes of the game by the glass & got to see some pretty rough smashes. We didn't end up winning, but at the end of the game the ref knocked on the glass & threw the game puck to Kenton! Cool!

After the game, we picked up the kids & came home. Finn fell asleep on the way home & Cedar fell asleep as soon as I laid him down in his bed - didn't make it to midnight this year. :) Stu & Jacque went home after the hockey game but Carolyn, Jesse & Brian came home with us. We played Carcassonne & watched the Times Square New Year's celebration.

I think Carolyn won!

Happy New Year!

2011! Woohoo! What a fun night. We loved spending the evening/late night with our good friends & brother. :)

christmas mid-day

The Hecht family gathered at my parents' house just before noon. Altogether, we are a group of 17 so it is always a big, busy, energetic gathering when we are all there. Plus the pile of presents is huge! ;)

Heroscape guys for Tyler!
Uncle Kenton has no problem thinking of gifts for his 10 year old nephew.

Griffin has such a cool dad!

Cedar took full advantage of the grown-ups being distracted & the cookies being within climbing distance.

He probably took a bite or two out of 8 different cookies before the cookies finally got moved. We were slow learners that morning...much to his perceived benefit, I'm sure. ;) Oh well, it was Christmas!

Cool R2D2 lunch box from Uncle Erik.

Littlest Pet Shop toys for Sadie!

I drew Erik's name this year & now he is the proud owner of a waffle maker! And a french press coffee brewer thing. :)

Kenton got many of the tools that were on his wishlist. This is the first year that he actually wanted tools. He must be growing up. :P

My mom drew my name & thoroughly spoiled me!

She made an apron for me & did such a great job picking fabrics that are totally "me". :) Plus it looks cute hanging in my kitchen. Gotta love that!

Kenton drew my dad's name & got him...

...a wireless printer! Yay Black Friday! ;)

A calendar for Memaw & Papa!

This year, Papa helped out in Santa's work shop! He made wooden dinosaur puzzles for the smallest cousins...

...Jolly Roger climbing toys for the preschoolers...

...& stilts for the grade schoolers! So cool! All of the kids loved their homemade toys.

Everyone tried out the stilts.

I know that Tyler has already mastered his & taught others. I need to try them out again when I'm not wearing dressy shoes. I wanna figure them out!

What a Merry Christmas we had. We are so blessed to have our family so close. We loved celebrating with all of our favorite people!

christmas morning

While the kids were sleeping, Santa set up one of the gifts Finn received from Mummi & Pappa - a Playmobil castle! Finn woke up earlier than usual & came in to let us know he saw some gifts under the tree. He was so excited to see that his castle was ready to play with & so impressed that Santa had set it up. Fun! :)

We woke up Cedar so that he could join the fun.

I was so excited to see Cedar open this gift. We had borrowed this book from the library & kept renewing it over & over because he loved it so much. So for Christmas, we got him the board book version. He definitely remembered his favorite book!

He remembered all of his favorite parts & loves to bring his new book to us to be read over & over again.

Kenton was the most excited about giving Finn this Nerf Sniper rifle.

The box showed a kid holding the gun, but we decided the kid in the picture must be a giant! This gun is SO big. Finn is very motivated to hold it though & has had a lot of fun using it with Dad.

A combo grand finale gift from us: a Duplos tunnels & balls building set. They've had lots of fun with this set & so have we! :)

christmas eve

We celebrated Christmas with the Henrys on Christmas Eve with a ham dinner, sweet potatoes, salad, potatoes. All things yummy.

Aforementioned yummy salad. :)

The boys. Just so handsome. I love them so.

Cedar loves his Uncle Brian.

New matching jammies for the boys. The perfect gift on Christmas Eve.

Cedar & Finley helped me make a sign for Pappa. They provided the hand prints, of course.

A photo calendar for Mummi - filled with photos of her grandsons. :)

We received many thoughtful gifts & had a great time enjoying & playing with them. The boys fell asleep on the way home, but Finn asked us to wake him up when Santa came. Of course, we couldn't do that...but I could hardly wait until morning! :)

the tree

I don't know what it was about this year, but I just felt like Christmas came out of nowhere. I constantly felt like I was behind schedule & had to catch up. I didn't do any new holiday crafts. Decorating was stressful (toddler & preschooler may have had something to do with that). I was behind on my blog so I wasn't taking a lot of photos. All of a sudden, it was nearly Christmas & I hadn't taken the time to soak it all in. So on the eve of Christmas eve, we squeezed in some photos by the tree.

The traditional photo of Carolyn & me hugging the tree (+ loved ones that have joined our families through the years). :)
This year, Cedar was awake for the photo. Carolyn & I have had our photo taken hugging the tree for many years - since one random photo in high school. We haven't done it EVERY year, but lately we've made it happen.

Papa & Memaw brought Uncle Erik over to see our home all decorated. We got a photo with the grandsons before they were on their way. :)

Cedar really enjoys pointing to ornaments, pulling them off the tree, separating the ornaments from their hooks, leaving them here & there. It's been interesting trying to keep track of him during the holidays, but luckily I put the precious ornaments out of reach. In this photo, he knows he's not supposed to be going near the tree...you can see the look in his eyes. Stinker! ;)

happy birthday pappa

We celebrated Pappa's birthday on December 22nd, with tri-tip steak & butterscotch pot de cremes! Delicious! We surprised Pappa by all going in together to get him a Nook E-reader. He was pretty sure it was a box of Sees candy, so we fooled him. :P