Heiner Family Christmas Party

Sunday morning we got ready and went to Church with the entire Heiner clan. One of the things that I will remember about this trip is how Jacob loved to open the hanger door so we could drive the van out. He thought it was great fun to push the buttons. Here are his little footprints in the snow.

After church we all met up at the FBO for the family Christmas party. It was really nice to have the party there because we had plenty of space for everyone.

We all spent some time hanging out together for a while.

Then we at lunch and got down to the fun part- unwrapping presents!

One of Jacob and Ephraim's favorite presents was this cool Lego firetruck. They wanted to open it right then and there!

We told them that we would open it at Grandpa and Grandma Heiner's house later that evening since we were staying one more night. It was fun to see everyone open their gifts. It was especially fun to see some of my nieces and nephews that I don't get to see very often. I can't believe how big they are now!

Pictured here are Ashley, Megan, Andrew, Ethan and Zach.

Jacob and Ephraim did a great job. They waited patiently until it was their turn to open presents.

Here are some cool crayon books that they got from Kirkham's.

Here is Ephraim with a hat and puzzle from Grandma Heiner. The boys also got some more Lincoln logs to add to their collection!

I knew that Joe had a special present for me, so I couldn't wait to open it. He got me a FlipHD, which is a really nice little video recorder. So now I can record the boys and the new baby on video in HD! Too cool!

The very last present was the one that we all worked on the hardest. We all got busy and made a hand print quilt for Grandpa and Grandma Heiner's 40th wedding anniversary (Dec. 26th). They were both really surprised and touched by the present. I told Joe that my mom was going to cry when she saw it, and I was right about that! My dad got a little bit misty-eyed as well.

I think it is a beautiful quilt. I embroidered the names on each square, and though I wasn't sure if I could get it done, especially in the time frame I needed to finish, I was pleased with how well that turned out.

Another fun thing was that Deanna got one of her photographer friends to take pictures of all of us. Since we only get together once a year, it is nice to have a picture of everyone. So here is Grandpa and Grandma Heiner with all their children and grandchildren.

I did end up doing a little bit of editing, but mostly the picture turned out pretty well. Here is one of Grandpa and Grandma with all their children and their spouses.

We also took some random fun pictures. Here is one of all my sisters.

From left: Deanna, Jeanette, Tiffany, Me, Shannon, Jalene

What a fabulous Christmas party! It turned out really well. We had plenty of space, everyone had somewhere to spend the night, and we had fun visiting with everyone. Joe even said it was one of the best Heiner family parties that he can remember pretty much since we got married!

After the party, everyone else left for home. We decided to stay one more evening so we didn't have to drive home in the dark. So we got to go play at Grandma and Grandpa Heiner's house by ourselves.

The boys got out their Lincoln logs and played with their Lego firetruck. Jacob was making me laugh because he was pretending that his log house was on fire so that the firemen could come and put it out. What a cutie!