Austin Antics -: A PERFECT FAMILY DAY..."It's almost Christmas, Charlie!"

Lots of laughter and running and messes and food all returned to the Austin home today! So blessed to fill the day with little people and to have modern technology which lets us SKYPE with the family in Twin Falls!

Jill and Peter came to Vegas to celebrate Christmas early and to take care of some business. Becky's daughter, Audrey, turns 5 tomorrow and all she wanted to do was go bowling! (and eat jigglers and pizza). So off we went, leaving very sick Daddy Charles home at Grandma's with very sick baby Aria! Victor joined us for 1/2 an hour and then went off to perform a wedding.

Sam's Town Bowling Alley, here we come the cousins!

Audrey, Aly & Ethan, standing behind their 8 balls!

Ethan enjoyed this exactly 4 times, then let Audrey bowl all the rest of his rounds!

Aly got real tired waiting for that ball to get to the end of the lane!!

Is this how you get a split, Daddy???

Becky is far and away our best bowler (she attributes it to wearing Charles' power shoes!)

But Audrey outscored her mom for the win!! Busted by ONE point!

Birthday girls should get to win!

Off for a quick tour around the Sam's town atrium Christmas displays, before heading home to Grandma's.

Lunch of jello squigglers, baby corn dogs topped off with Audrey's rice crispy "cake." (Unfortunately, unlike her Uncle Nathan, she doesn't even like rice crispy treats)

(Aria wants to help!!)

Who do you suppose will lose their eyesight first (for sitting too close to the TV) - Aly or Santa??

(She's been inseparable all week from her winter friends!)

Becky and Jill planned a surprise for us. They contacted Nathan and Colleen in Twin Falls and planned a "Skype" Christmas home evening (afternoon) since we can't all be together this year. (Peter has to work Christmas Day, Nathan & Colleen are coming down here for Colleen's brother's wedding in California, so we will get to have them with us for a few days).

Charles wins the award for Tecno-geek to get us set up on two screens, complete with speakers to hear each other. Twin Falls Austins sang and played the violin and Amaya & Noelle did keyboard performances.

Jill sang at our end, Peter and Becky read stories. New babies Gideon and Aria got to "meet" each other again. Nice moments.

Topped off our evening with kids eating pizza while Grandma told them about Santa Lucia, & their Swedish heritage.

Tired little Ethan consented to be the "star boy" long enough to have photos taken. (All the Graf household has had a lot of illness for the past week). I couldn't find both Lucia costumes so Aly and Audrey took turns wearing the crown and carrying the tray of hot chocolate and Santa Lucia buns.