For several years, Jacob has chosen to have donuts instead of cake for his birthday. We put all 13 candles into his apple fritter. 
He got Kirby Yarn for the Wii.
He also got a case for his DS lite system that he received on Christmas.
And of course, cards and money from both grandparents. Jacob rarely spends money, so this money will be added to last years, which is still sitting on his dresser.
The kids are waiting for our traditional Appetizer feast for New Years Eve dinner. I have been watching what I eat and I love appetizers. Most of them are not healthy, but delicious.
After the younger kids went to bed, we had a game fest. Last year we let Alison stay up until 11pm. This year she gets to stay up until Midnight. She is very excited.
We started a tradition while living in Utah to have the kids eat donuts and milk upstairs before going down and opening presents. We did this to keep them occupied while we waited for Grandpa and Grandma Burgess to arrive. They make us still do this tradition even though there is no purpose to it anymore.
Emily would not pose in her picture of loot. 
Rylie wouldn't either, but at least I took it before she escaped. 
This year was great. We got the kids lots of similar things so they would play together. Santa brought all, but Jacob, Pillow Pets. Rylie and Emily both got slumber bags. Alison, Josh, and Rylie got playdoh sets, Ali and Josh got paint by numbers, Ali and Rylie got Kittens that walk and purr, etc. It was really nice. We had such a fun day.
Jacob is hitting the jump.
We had the park to ourselves.
Darren borrowed some snow shoes from a guy at work. Jacob went on the trails around the park. He thought is was lots of fun.
Can you say wipe out?
Alison also took her turn on the snow shoes.
Alison hit the jump better than Jacob did. She always got good air.
Josh like sledding, but also liked to play on the playground. I would never have thought to take the kids to the park in the winter until this year. They has just as much or even more fun than during the summer.
After a very long afternoon of sledding, we came home to prepare dinner. We started a tradition last year to have a "favorites dinner" on Christmas Eve. Each person gets to choose one favorite food item to have on our dinner buffet. It can be any food item (it does not have to be a dinner item). This year Darren made spatzle, Jacob chose shrimp cocktail, Alison chose cheese Ravioli, Josh chose quesadillas, Rylie chose Jello, and Emily chose chips and cheese sauce. Since I am a mom and I would have chosen the shrimp, I added the broccoli. Jacob took a picture of his plate. Looking at the picture, it doesn't look that appetizing. It wasn't bad and it is fun for everyone. At least there is one thing each person would eat. Rylie only at Jello (and a lot of it).
After dinner we frosted sugar cookies. The kids love to decorate cookies.
We had planned to act out the nativity scene but ran out of time. Santa was coming soon. We had the kids open their one present (pj's or slippers) and head off to bed. What a fun and exhausting day.
This is the worst looking cake I have ever made. I saw this cake in a book and thought it looked cute and easy. The problem was, I had never made a cake in a bundt pan before. I made it after dinner and had to hurry so we could start the party. Only half came out of the pan. The cake was still warm when I frosted it. I thought it might be okay because the frosting was suppose to just drip over the sides. All I can say is that it didn't work.
The cake completely fell apart when we cut into it. We all had a good laugh as we ate it.
I didn't matter to Emily. She thought the cake was great and loved it. I guess that's all that matters. It did taste pretty good.
Happy Birthday Emily.
Rylie spent most of the time eating snow off of their mittens.
Josh enjoyed every minute of it.
Emily liked it at first.
But within a short amount of time, became very unhappy. She did not feel secure walking on the snow and wanted me to hold her hand the whole time. She was happy when I told her we were going in.
Here is Josh's attempts of making snow angels. The snow is crispy frozen and not that soft powder. He did his best, but ended up just laying there.
Rylie
Joshua
Jacob and Emily
Alison
When we got home the kids didn't want to come in. We took a picture of them out in the back yard from our (apparently dirty) sliding glass door. The back yard was a sheet of ice. They didn't need sleds. they would run and slide on their bellies or knees all the way across the yard. It did look fun, but I wasn't going back out in that cold.
