Wonderful Christmas

Okay, I'm once again not able to post pictures, but this is due to LAZINESS!! All the celebration from the past couple of days has caught up with me and I'm so exhausted. Exhausted but happy and content, that is. The past couple of days have been full of Christmas joy, family and laughter. Here's a little breakdown of what our holiday looked like.

Wednesday:

I spent most of the day getting ready for Christmas and doing the little things, like wrapping some last minute gifts and running some last minute errands. My aunt, uncle and cousins came into town on Wednesday, which is a day earlier than they originally planned to arrive. That was all because of a big snow storm that was due to hit us late on Wednesday evening and I was glad that they missed the storm. While I was very anxious for Christmas to arrive, I was also worried about my sister and mom driving from Texas to Minnesota. They were planning to leave Texas on Thursday morning and arrive sometime on Friday. However, they were due to drive through the storm at the worst part of it, and all of us were worried for their safety.

Thursday:

We got up and out the door after some morning relaxation. We planned to spend the whole day at my in-laws' house, and even brought our dog with us in case we got stuck at their house due to bad weather. A couple of hours before dinner, I got a call from my brother who lives in a town near my in-laws. My side of the family was all over at his house and I wasn't sure why he was calling me. He told me that he had some plates for me at his house that I previously asked to use for our Christmas meal the next day, and did I want to stop over and get them? I told him that the plates weren't that important and he could bring them the next day. He said, "Ummmm....." and then proceeded to tell me that he had a card I needed to sign so he would come to my in-laws house in a little bit. I was so confused by the conversation because my brother is never persistent about silly things like plates and cards. I hung up with him and told my husband that my brother was acting really weird. A few minutes later, my brother sent a picture and a message to my cell phone. What was it all about, you ask? It was a picture of my sister asleep on my brother's couch, and the message said, "Are you sure you don't want to come over?" I just knew somewhere in my gut that my little sister, whom I hadn't seen in a year, was nearby and that message was confirmation. I started to cry (which probably startled my husband's side of the family---ha!) and immediately called my brother. It was true, my sister (who just came home from Iraq) was at my brother's house, so we just had to go over there for a little bit. Chris, the kids and I left my in-laws' house and ended up spending about a half an hour at my brother's house before heading back over to my in-laws' to finish our Christmas celebration. (Did you catch all that?? There will be a quiz later.) Dinner was delicious as usual (lutefisk, lefse, cabbage rolls, potato sausage---the works!) and our gift exchange was so much fun. It was such a wonderful Christmas Eve, but it certainly went by too fast!!

Friday:

The kids didn't wake up too early to see if Santa arrived. In fact, Hannah had to be woken up before her brother opened all of her gifts himself. The ages of the kids this year was just perfect for all the Santa traditions. (The kids even got letters from Santa in the mail the week before Christmas. How cool is that??) Anyway, we always try to have the kids open the gifts one by one so we can "ooh and aah" over each item, but this year, the kids were too fast for us. Plus, Caleb can read his own name and his sister's name, so he was pulling boxes out from under the tree and shouting, "Hannah! This one's for you! I'll help you!" (Enter the sound of ripping paper here.) "Great! Next one is for me!!" (Sound of ripping paper.) -- That's about how fast it was! Around noon, my side of the family began arriving at our house. My aunt and uncle brought cookie dough with them so the kids could help bake cookies with my uncle. (This will be a post of it's own in a little bit.) We then started some of the key food items that need to cook all day, and, because we were all excited, decided to open gifts before dinner this year. My husband's family and my family all have the tradition that we like to open gifts one at a time so we can all see what everyone got. (I love this tradition!) However, that was WAY to slow of a process for my kids. We decided to let him tear into their gifts right away, while the rest of us took everything nice and slow. That actually worked very well, because the kids were playing with their gifts as we were opening. The highlight gift for Caleb was definitely the two pet frogs he got from my aunt and uncle's family. (Yes, they are actual frogs but I'll write more about them in a later post.) A little while after presents, we set the tables up and had dinner (more lutefisk, potato bologna, roast beef, ostkaka, applesauce jello, etc). It was such a great Christmas Day, but like Christmas Eve, it went by too fast!!

Saturday:

Chris went ice fishing with his brothers and dad this day so he got up before any of us did. The kids and I relaxed and tried to bring some order to our chaotic household (toys, dirty dishes and packaging EVERYWHERE!). In the late afternoon, my side of the family came to our house again and we ordered Chinese food for dinner. What a great meal to have the day after Christmas. From what I heard, that Chinese restaurant was pretty busy!!

After all of our Christmas celebrations, we all got sick. Chris had a sore throat, my kids had runny noses (which they had the whole time, actually) and I was feeling quite under the weather. At least we made it past Christmas, is all I can say!!

We hope your holiday was safe, warm and as jolly as ours was. We are so very blessed to have such a wonderful and large family to share these special holiday memories with. :)

BLESSED!

Tonight, I am itching to blog about one thing: how amazingly blessed we are!! There are a few reasons why I am feeling this way.

#1: Caleb is cleaning his room by himself. This has been a bear of a day with the kids as they went to bed late last night and woke up bright and early this morning. Their "listening ears" have been on vacation so there have been quite a few "time-outs" and quite a few times when Chris and I were ready to just put the kids to bed and be done with the day!! (Of course, putting them to bed at 4pm would have been anything but helpful....) Anyway, it was hours and hours of me mentioning to Caleb that he would need to straighten his room before bed and hours and hours of Caleb protesting. Finally, he said "I'm going upstairs!" and headed up there, only to clean his room! Whoo-hoo! It's only the second time he's done this, so I'm very impressed with it. :)

#2: Hannah potty-training. In the past week, Hannah has told us several times that she's needed to go potty, and we were able to get her to the toilet before she went "potty" in the diaper. Tonight was no exception---she really impressed Chris and I. This is amazing to me because it's almost a year earlier than Caleb potty-trained. Girls really ARE different! Wow!

#3: Vikings Football. We are the NFC North champions this year and will make it to the play-offs!! Sweet!!!

#4: Most importantly: MY BABY SISTER IN BACK IN THE UNITED STATES!! Torie arrived on U.S. soil this afternoon, and while I won't see her until Christmas, my mom has seen her and can say that she's really here!!! This is the one thing that softened my heart tonight and has made everything seem that much better.

Praise the Lord for all the blessings he gives us this holiday season and throughout the year. :)

Gotta Love 2009...

As I've mentioned before, my little sister is serving our country in Iraq with the Army. She's been there for 6 months or so and will continue to be there for at least another 6 months. We truly miss her and wish she was here with us, but some days it feels like she really IS here with us! This day and age, there is so much technology that helps us not only talk to our loved ones that are far away but also SEE them.

Today, I deemed it "Pajama Day" in our house. It's not raining outside, but it's gray and damp. Caleb and I both woke up crabby (and Hannah is good a mimicking both of us) so I decided that we'd all sit around and just hang out today. So far, I've accomplished drinking a pot of coffee, cleaning up the breakfast dishes and talking to my sister for over an hour. I'm so glad I picked today to sit around because I happened to be home and bored when Torie (my sister) sent me a text message saying that she was "around to chat" on the Internet. Curious, I downloaded the Instant Messager program that she uses and sure enough, there she was! After chatting for a few minutes, I got an "invitation" from her to look at her web cam (a camera hooked up to her computer). I don't have one of these web cams and I'm not sure how to use them, but nonetheless, I was SO HAPPY when I clicked a button and Torie's face appeared on my computer screen. I got to see all of her reactions to the jokes I sent her, plus got to see how long her hair is getting (when I use the expression "mermaid hair", I'm not joking!). Not to mention, she was listening to some of Caleb's favorite music so he got to watch her do a silly dance to one of his favorite songs. How special is was to sit and have such a great conversation with my sister and see her bright, shining face. While I'm not very smart in the technology department (this is why I married an engineer---so he could do all the techy stuff for me!), I am so grateful that in 2009, our technology is advanced enough for me to be able to SEE my precious little sister and know that she's doing okay.

(And thanks to the Army/Air Force for having computers available on base for the soldiers to purchase. Torie's original computer died and she was able to go right out and buy another one. Praise the Lord!!)

Bye, Bye, Birdie.....

I have always been a fan of musicals and old movies. (Thanks to my mother, of course!) I have to admit that much of the attraction of musicals is the daydream that I, too, will break out into spontaneous choreographed song and dance someday and that the other people around me (wherever I may be) will join in. I do break out into this mode while standing in my kitchen but all I get are strange looks from my son. Anyways, one of my favorite musicals is "Bye Bye Birdie". Specifically, I love the title song and the scene in which it plays in the 1995 remake of the original film. If you are unaware, this story is all about an Elvis-like celebrity who is going into the Army. His managers come up with a great idea to send him to a small town and have him give his "last kiss" to a girl from his fan club. You really get an idea of what the whole "Elvis craze" was about and just how much people loved him! In true Torie-fashion, my sister gave me this movie as an early birthday present two days before she left for the Army herself. I have to admit, that girl thinks of everything.

To watch my favorite scene from that movie, click HERE. The scene is 3:47 minutes long and for the record, I DO NOT own a "Birdie training bra". :)

A funny side note: after seeing this clip on the computer on Friday, Caleb asked to be sung "Bye bye Birdie" before he went to sleep that night. Chris, who doesn't know the words to the song, made up a song and Caleb stopped him mid-song to say "Not THAT song, Dad! I want the "bye bye birdie" from the computer!" I think I'm making an impression on the young lad. :)