Jay's Birthday Dinner

Jay's birthday is on the 27th, so they hosted a nice dinner with the fam + Lepperts.

Christmas in Helena

We had Christmas dinner at Pudd's - watched Grayson open gifts and caught up with everyone. We hadn't seen Grayson in over a year - he has changed so much!

The kids table - Tripp and I are still in this group :)

The adult table - so festive! 
 

The next day - we slept in and lounged around the house all day. Played games, opened presents and ate a lot of food!

One afternoon, Tripp and I got out of the house and took a walk on the river walk to see the Miss river. It was so peaceful and quiet!

In a few weeks, this will all be under water. 

We then went to the Battery C battle site and played around a bit.

Christmas Eve & Morning

I taught class Christmas Eve and MA and Dixie came! I was so excited to have family join and they did awesome!

We headed to Memom and Rannan's after and hung out for a few hours before we had to get ready for church which started at 4pm this year. Brooks and Barrett opened some presents and we ate chicken salad. The best!

This was Barrett closing his eyes :) Love him!

Brooks with his little indian set. Adorable.

Christmas Eve, we went to mass at 4 and ate at Mermaids for dinner. We played games at M&R's afterwards and laughed SO HARD. I have videos, but not pictures. Let's just say Tripp knows how to shake it and made me proud.

Mom, Tripp and I after dinner.

Christmas morning, Tripp and I loaded the car and we all said we would meet at M&R's at 9am to start opening presents. We needed to leave by 12:30 to make it in time for dinner in Helena with Tripp's fam, so everyone is so nice about trying to make sure Tripp and I can still eat breakfast as a family like usual before we leave. 

I got MM matching Jammies :)

This year was the first year Tripp and I got each other presents and wrapped them under the tree. It was so fun! In years past, we either don't do gifts or just do one big one. I liked this - it was fun hiding gifts, wrapping secretly and then opening them next to each other Christmas morning.

Rannan cooking on the grill.

Next up - Tripp's family Christmas!

Christmas Eve Eve - 2015 Progressive Party

One of my favorite traditions - the Collins Progressive Party!

This year we started at our house for bloody marys and mimosas - we had a good crowd for our family at 10:30am and I loved having everyone over. Tripp had to work, so he missed out :(

We took a selfie at everyone house and this is the first!

Cocktail station is over on the right side of the pic.

Four Christmases was on the TV.

The Heringers surprised us and showed up! So glad to see them.

Aunt Cheryl & Barrett played hide and seek... and she was behind our tree. It took him a while to find her and somehow she fit and didn't hurt a thing :)

The kids played with Reggie outside in the back yard - poor Reg was exhausted after that. He is not used to kids :)

After our house, we headed to Chuy's for lunch.

Barrett and I sat next to each other... so we took a selfie. He is the best kid.

After lunch, it was dessert at mom and dads. Barrett threw up all over on the way to the house, so he took a bath and then played in a tshirt (no undies). He ran into the house naked and said "I'm here for the party!" Hilarious.

These tasted as good as they looked! Pretzel wreaths.

After lunch, I had to teach Jazzercise so I missed before-dinner drinks at Brad and Jessas. This is the group that went!

Then, we had dinner at Aunt KK and Uncle Scott's house.

Last stop for dessert at Memom and Rannan's - bananas foster.

These two "outlaws" look like they're having so much fun... at least they are smiling. This wasn't posed.

The cousins :)

Here is a pic that shows all of the pics from each stop! I love this tradition because it's low effort/stress and there are no distractions. We just eat, drink and spend time together... exactly what I want to do with my family!