We held this year's Pugmire family Christmas party on the Saturday before Christmas, which was also my Grandma Bodily's birthday. We used to have so much at her house around the holidays especially with the cousins and I love that my kids now get to make fun memories with their cousins at their grandparents'. My mom did the 12 days of Christmas for all of us again this year, so we had already been spoiled with getting to open a present a day leading up to the party. The day started out with a yummy breakfast and then we got to open presents. This was followed by all kinds of fun activities that my mom had planned including a bean bag toss, ring toss (with 2 liters of pop as prizes), a treasure hunt, decorating rice crispy trains, and making bead candy cane decorations. There was the annual skeet shoot, which my kids and I missed since it was freezing cold and Brandt is still terrified of the noisy guns. We also had impromptu face painting; Brandt was the Grinch/Rudolph while Kenzie, Kylie, and Rylie all wanted Rudolph noses and Amanda Jean wanted a princess. Once again, Bryce was the most sought after face painting artist. Then we had another yummy meal-ham and funeral potatoes-one of my favorites!
Brandt always seems to have a hard time with his behaviors around the holidays, especially with the large family gatherings and parties, and this year was no different. I wish I could figure out how to better prepare him for all the excitement without having him get so stressed out and having the big meltdowns so that he could just enjoy it all as much as I used to when I was his age. The day started out to be a very difficult one with him, but thankfully he was able to get it under control and we still had a great day!
