New Year's Eve 2022

 We love our tradition of hosting a New Year's Eve party for family! This year all of the Houston family was in town, so we had a nice large celebration. Keeping with tradition, Jason helped me assemble our special balloon drop prior to the party-- no Schleicher New Year's Eve party can be complete without one!

After having dinner together, each family group took turns opening up a bag that listed an activity for us to do.

First, Jason led the family in a Kids vs. Adults game called "Two Guesses," similar to Game of Things.

Here, the kids are trying to hide their expressions so that the adults can't determine which one of them wrote the clue!

Because the game was a little complex, some of the younger (or young-at-heart) family members chose instead to decorate a New Year's Eve party hat.

Adley and Noah had the great idea to add decoration to the tops of their party hats. The hats turned out so cute!

Then, Chelsea led us in a game called Tic-Tac-Toe Relay. The kids got a bit competitive on this game, but they still seemed to enjoy it. The idea was such a fun one!

Back inside, we watched a video slideshow which was a compilation of everyone's favorite memories from 2022. Ian spent a lot of time creating this slideshow and did a fantastic job. It was so fun seeing a little recap of everyone's year-- so many shared memories too!

Uncle Jon led the whole group in a fun dance party, but I missed getting photos of the whole group! We were all having too much fun dancing, apparently! I did capture this cute shot of Ian helping Selah participate in the dance.

One of our final activities was having small groups complete and present Mad Libs stories. Uncle Jon's story was about pirates, and he gave an especially dramatic reading of his story!

Finally, we met in the kitchen for a prayer, recognizing our Heavenly Father's presence and good gifts throughout the year, and a sparkling cider toast.

What beautiful people to celebrate the New Year with!

At our arbitrary "New Year's Eve" time (something like 7:30 or 8:00), we started a youtube video countdown clock and eagerly counted down the seconds to the New Year. This is quite likely everyone's favorite part of the entire evening. Ben was the lucky cousin elected to pull the balloon drop zip cord this year.

All eyes riveted on the countdown...

And 10...9...8...7...6...5

4...3...2...1....

Happy New Year!!

Can you just hear the noise and celebration through these photos?!

Here's a video so you CAN actually hear the real excitement and celebration. :) I love how the kids start counting faster than the video. You can definitely sense their eagerness!

These cousins loved helping me "clean up" all of the balloons after the balloon drop!

What a wonderful evening, as we praised God together for a great 2022 and looked ahead to a year of His grace and love in 2023!

Schleicher Family Christmas

 Christmas 2022 was a relaxing, yet very cold, holiday here in Texas. We first celebrated with the Walquist side the week before Christmas, opening gifts and enjoying a yummy meal at Grammy and Papa's house. Then, over Christmas break, we spent many days with the Schleicher side-- going to church together, meal hopping at everyone's homes, gift opening, playing sports at CLHS, going to a park, playing board games, and just enjoying time together. We loved having Beth and Andy visit from Minnesota too. A few of our plans ended up being canceled (mini golfing and looking at Christmas lights from the Concordia bus) due to the extra chilly temperatures, but we still had fun just hanging out!

Holding Baby Selah is always a highlight. She sure gets passed around from one lap to another!

 

Micah and Uncle Jason noticed they were "twinning" one day!

The older boys have developed an original game called Squiley-ball that can only be played at the unique set-up of Matt and Kim's house. They enjoyed quite a few rounds of this toss & block game.

Grandpa and Grandma celebrated an anniversary on December 26th. The grandkids surprised them with a colorful poster.

On the days when the weather was a bit milder, the kids enjoyed some outdoor playtime. The park by Grandma and Grandpa's house was a hit for both football and playground time.

At both gift-opening celebrations, the grandkids shared their musical talents with a mini concert. At Grammy and Papa's house, Jaden played his baritone, Cody played a piano song, and Adley sang a Kids' Ministry song (from Ugly Sweater Sunday) with Abby and Ben.

At Grandpa and Grandma's house, the boys played their instruments again. Jaden even played a couple songs along with both Ryan and Ian. Their brass trio (baritone, trumpet, and trombone) sounded great!

After the last gathering, Adley had begged me to teach her to play a piano song. She practiced hard and, without any prior piano experience, learned to play Jingle Bells just in time!

And of course, the most important part of our Christmas gatherings is celebrating Jesus' birth! It was a blessing to worship together with family at Trinity on Christmas Eve and at Salem on Christmas Day. 

We are so thankful for the love of our Savior Jesus who willingly came to earth to live among us and be our Redeemer! He is the Reason we celebrate this wonderful holiday!