Christmas 2024

It was a very merry Christmas season for the Donoghues!

Celebrating an epic season so far for the Lions!

We continued our tradition of visiting Frankenmuth on Christmas Eve-Eve.  We had an early dinner at Bavarian with the Odglens and then spent the rest of the evening at the Bavarian Inn.  

I plan to recreate this in 15 years

The kids enjoyed the pools for a little while, and then we checked out the new climbing walls and high-ropes course.  I figured it would be obnoxiously expensive, but it was actually pretty reasonable and they let us stay in the area as long as we wanted.  Ben was too short to go alone, so I had to be his shadow... which turned out to be awesome!  I've never done one of these courses before, so I had such a fun time doing everything, and was so impressed with how brave Ben was!  Two hours flew by, we shut the place down!

Maggie and Will went down the slide sooo many times

Can't hold still enough to get a good photo!

Tried the climbing walls first

Suited up, ready to go!

Brave Ben

Evie and Will

Violet joined in too! "I wasn't scared at all"

Amy made "Merry Swift-mas" sweatshirts for our Swifties

The next day we did the arcade and our annual trip to Bronner's for a few ornaments.  We love our tradition!

Still a favorite

Skee-ball!

Obligatory photo

Meeting Willy

When you didn't get enough sleep and emotions
are running high

Meeting Santa

Telling Santa he wants a popcorn machine...
which I've told him 100 times we already have!

Family

Twinsies

We decided to attend the children's mass at our church on Christmas Eve... even though we were pretty early, we just barely got seats in the gathering area.  We couldn't really hear anything except a bunch of screaming kids - Note to self: DO NOT MAKE THIS ROOKIE MISTAKE NEXT YEAR!

Ready for church

The kids were up at 8am (mostly because Ben couldn't wait any longer) and we had a really fun time opening gifts.  It was a very sweet morning, all good attitudes and gratitude.  Jamie really surprised me with a trip to see The Killers in Vegas next month - I'm excited! My parents joined us later for a relaxing breakfast, lovely and low-key as always.  We went over to the Donoghues later in the afternoon to see the whole family.

We're so blessed

Maggie got a Taylor guitar from Santa, one that
is her size and should make lessons a lot easier for her

Evie's favorite gift this year was an Apple Watch, but
her new beanbag was a close second.

Ben got a new iPad, but he looks way cuter with
his new punching bag from Grammer and Pops!

Maple seriously enjoying one of her gifts

Bobby thankfully made the traditional Friendship Cake,
so I very much enjoyed it with coffee this week

The Donoghues!

Maggie and Will just being themselves

Bonding over screens

Working hard

Cuddles with Grandma

Jamie and I made homemade ornaments as is tradition.  These probably don't make much sense to anyone but us, but capturing for posterity:

Jamie made this ceramic ornament of Raygun,
perhaps one of my favorite events from this year

Very clearly made by me - most nights I make
a mixed fruit bowl and nag Jamie at the end of dinner
to "have some fruit, it's good for you."