Stevensons and Breen, our choice as Christmas Heroes

Kayleen Breen teamed up with The Walleye Tavern owners Jim and Anita Stevenson to throw a Christmas party for Hi-Line children.

Forty-five kids, ranging from 11 months to 12 years old, were at the Dec. 13 Christmas party. They made sugar cookies and snow globes, played games and talked to Santa and the Grinch, who each made an appearance.

This is the first time Breen, mother of a 1-year-old daughter, Gracie, and 8-year-old daughter, Taelie, teamed up with The Walleye Tavern owners for the event.

The main reason was "because there's really not a lot to do on the Hi-Line," Breen said.

She also figured it would be a good way for everyone involved to have holiday fun. Moms, dads and grandparents helped the children put sprinkles on the cookies and squirt glue to hold the crafts together.

Breen is certainly not doing this out of boredom. Between working full-time at a local dealership and taking care of her children, there isn't a lot of standing-around time.

As for the Stevensons, their children may be too old to make snow globes, but their grandchildren are not. Troy is 7 and Ashleith is 8.

The couple bought The Walleye Tavern in 2009 after seeing an ad for it in the Holiday Village Mall.

The tavern is what happens when a family restaurant collides with a bar. A pool table greets everyone that walks through the door and an assortment of beer bottles lines the wall across the bar. But the rest of the large room is taken up by a salad bar and rectangular tables with plastic, red-checkered tablecloths.

The Stevensons throw three parties a year that involve many small children running around. Halloween and Easter are the other two occasions.

"It's three days of the year when we don't have to be adults," Anita Stevenson said. "We make ourselves go down to their level."

Both Jim and Anita Stevenson, who each have a different version of a UK accent - Anita spent 19 years in Scotland and Jim is a native Londoner-lived in San Jose, California, and Denver before settling in Kremlin. They plan on sticking around in Montana ... as long as it doesn't get too crowded.

"This is where I want to be laid down," Jim Stevenson said, smirking and looking over at his wife. He was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt that said "Papa Bear" and she a similar purple one that said "Mama Bear." Both hoodies were early Christmas gifts from their children.

While they're still with us, the Stevensons, together with Breen, will continue to keep the parties going. The kids Christmas party is already in the plans for next year.