Christmas 2010

was an adventure this year. It was an amazingly good adventure. We got to go back to Springfield and be with my family for Christmas. It was so good to be home in normal winter temperatures where it rained everyday and one day actually snowed. Perfect. This is mosty pictures but I will try and narrarate some of them. I did get a new camera for Christmas from Tyson. I have such an amazing husband. It's a Nikon coolpix 15x optical zoom. It even has a setting for taking pictures of food which is perfect for all my desserts and cakes that I have been making lately. If you want to see pictures of that go to elisescakeshop.blogspot.com I put my moms birthday cake up on that website and it didn't turn out exactly how I wanted but it still looked and tasted amazing. To add to all the amazement I got a ton of cake decorating materials from my mom. I can't wait to take some classes and start trying some of it out.

Natalia wearing Tysons Boise State hat that he got from my Dad

 

Natalia was good at helping people unwrap presents and testing out all the presents that weren't hers. That would be Jadens woody doll

 

More of Natalia unwrapping

 

I love this picture but I don't know why it won't stay flipped the right way.

Natalia loves brushing her hair. Good thing her aunt can teach her some tricks with hair.

 

Grandpa got her cute earings.

Jaden got a crayon maker. It's kind of a gift for me to so that when they brake all the crayons we can melt them and reuse them instead having to buy new ones.

Natalia was quite the entertainer but she got tired after having to help everyone open presants.

 

 Jaden has been wearing PJ's since we got done with Christmas. I would almost say that it was his favorite gift. We alternate with How to Train you Dragon, Toy Story and frog pajamas. He wears normal clothes to school but as soon as he gets home he is in PJ's

Natalia got a princess phone and she loves it. Mom, I think it got left at your house though because I haven't seen it.

My mom actually smiled for the camera (it was our second try)

Nathan and Stefanie

Another picture that wouldn't flip right. So annoying. Anyway we have pictures of us all sitting in this rocking chair. Love this little girl.



We decided to make gingerbread houses. It wasn't supposed to be a competition but you know the Drake family. We are competitive in everything. This was before......

This is after.

We are really good at making messes to.

So we had a slight problem. Jessica and I both started using Neccos for our roof and She stoll all of them. So, my sweet dad went to the store to find me an alternative. He came home with wafer cookies and they worked perfectly. And I wasn't the only one who benefited. This is the front of my house

This is the side and back. You can see the roof better and then I did a wrap around porch. If you look at the front veiw you can see little stairs on the left hand side.

Stefan had a little fun with the frosting.

This would be Jaden and Nathans. It's the candy cane lodge in the candy cane forest. On top ofthe sign is a shotgun.

This is jessica and chads front of the house. They all had names and I can't remember the name of thiers. Nathan called mine the japanese house or something like that.

This is Stefan and Shannons. This one is the Griswaulds house beacause of all the "lights" on the roof.

                                               The back of Stefan and Shannons

The back of Jessica and Chads. As you can see there's a balcony with a hot tub and the bottom one has a barbecue.

and finally Nathans house back. There's a giant door for Nathan to get through and a deer with an arrow through it and a bow and arrow on the other side of the door. Don't you love his chimney. It's a slide feature so that santa can have a little fun while he comed down the filthy chimney. It was so entertaining to watch him work with Jaden and result there are some random gum drops on the roof on the right hand side.

                                   

Stefan with Bandit and Peanut. My parents now have two dogs. Stefan loves them and my mom tolerates them which is a huge change to when I was at home. :)

 

Santa left Jaden a military lego set. It will build a tons of differant things like a tank, helicopter, jet, plane, jeep, semi and more and you can build them all at once. You don't have to take one apart to build the other. Natalia got a bouncing and babbles baby alive. Everytime we go to walmart she would pull them off the shelf and carry them around so that's what she got.

 

My cute baby girl in her pj's that my mom made her. My mom calls it "hippy fabric" since I'm the Hippy in the family which isn't really a hippy. But I do love alot of hippy paterns and other things.

 

Jaden going crazy can you see all the presents and wrapping paper surrounding him?

We had a great christmas and really enjoyed being in Oregon again. We are hoping to someday move back. Tyson was looking at some community colleges to teach at in the area once he gets his masters. I hope so much it happens becuase I love it there. I got my fill of dutch bros. to last me till next time hopefully. That's the only downside for tyson he said becuase I would spend so much money going there every day. Which is probably true. I love that place. They actually have some in Boise area and I have got Janie (Tysons mom) hooked on them. Every time I'm in Boise it's our little thing to go and get a smoothie. I think it's a great tradition.

Hope everyone had a good christmas like us and a happy new year.