BBR Christmas 2012 Part 2

 CHRISTMAS MORNING!

Ryan playing with a Thomas the Train magnetic book that he received. He's not into Thomas as much as Jake was, but he still likes it. 

 This was Jake's favorite Christmas present -- an Angry Birds stuffie. Hilarious, but he has played SO MUCH with it, and it's on his bed while he sleeps (and I am able to verify this as I am writing this post 2 months after Christmas, ha!).

 Figuring out the new necklace Tyler brought for Amy.

 Tyler modeling the framed picture Jake and Ryan (with some help from mom) made.

After the stockings, the yummy breakfast, and opening of presents, we spent a little time outside and then got dressed for a mid-day dinner at the lodge. It was so lovely! And we ate with lovely people.

Pictures from the end of our meal. The boys did extremely well. The dinner is buffet-style, and so you get up and fill your plate multiple times. This actually works well for little boys and many adults because we can take turns getting up and helping them and they don't have to wait for their food. And when they were finished with their meals, I pulled out headphones and iPhones and let them play so the adults could enjoy the rest of our meals. 

Ryan took this picture during the meal. I love it because it shows the tall windows of the lodge and the trees with a dusting of snow.

This other picture taken by Ryan makes me laugh. It's a tiny sliver of a shot of his dessert -- he went for the chocolate chip cookie and shiny-wrapped candy over the carrot cake, bread pudding, chocolate mousse, and strawberry cheesecake!

And this picture I love. So. Much. My Aunt sent these beautiful sweaters to the boys for their Christmas gifts and they looked just darling. 

Pretty house with snow and lights. 

After this I have no idea which pictures were taken on which days. Just that we had lots of fun staying on the ranch until December 30th, which made a record of 9 days there for the Vees. My parents, Amy, and Tyler left earlier, on the 27th, to attend a party in Portland. There was also skiing. On the 26th my Dad, Amy, Tyler, and Jake all drove up to Mt. Bachelor and skied.

After Christmas it was all about the snow! We finally had 2 days where the snow was wet enough to be sticky for snowpeople and snowballs. We went sledding and spent lots of time pulling the boys around in the sled.

This snowperson greeted us at the turn in the driveway.

Reading his new Hardy Boys book. (Notice Angry Bird stuffie.)

Ryan loves reading, too.

Tyler happy at Aspen Lake.

It was all so beautiful. One of the days the Vees walked all the way to Aspen Lake with the sled and did a number of runs down the steep hill on the other side of the lake. 

It snowed on and off while we were there. The cars kept getting covered with snow. 

I think this was driving up the east side of the Santiam Pass, going to pick up Jake from his ski lesson at Hoodoo. 

Then we went down the west side, and the skies were clear, which was fabulous for Jake's skiing!

The best part about it for Jake was that he got to see his two friends from school and have lunch with them.

It was such a fabulous vacation (although I did work half-time that week), and so nice to have a snowy winter getaway.