Christmas Pictures

I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures from Christmas. Wow---took me long enough, right?? ;)

The whole gang on Christmas Eve:


We tried to get a good picture of all the grandkids. As you can see, Cece has quite a handful of Hannah's hair---and a mouth-full, too!! (Poor Hannah, but we all had a good chuckle at how cute the situation was.)



Caleb was pretty excited to open this gift:


(It was a stick pony.)

Christmas morning was so fun because the kids are at just the perfect ages to enjoy Christmas and the magic of Santa. Caleb got just what he wanted from Santa this year...


...and so did Hannah.


Later on Christmas Day, Caleb helped my uncle bake cookies (which has become an annual tradition, I think).


Hannah helped "taste" the cookies....


The next gang on Christmas Day


(We're a goofy bunch.)



I got just what I wanted for Christmas!!

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. :)

Snowy Christmas

I realized earlier that I have lots of pictures to post but since we got a new "little" camera, I don't know how to off-load the pictures yet. So....that will have to wait. Instead of pictures, I thought I'd say "HAPPY BIRTHDAY" to my little girl. This week is her birthday and she is really growing up so fast. It's amazing to see how much kids grow during the first two years. Every day, little parts of her language development surprise me. Even today, I said, "Okay, go sit in your chair" and she said, "Go sit in my chair?" What? Since when did she put the "your" and "my" part of the English language together?? Amazing!

As for her birthday, are we doing anything special today? Not really. She had pancakes for breakfast (as she does most days), but today I put candles in them and let her blow them out. After her nap, we're going to the grocery store to stock up on Christmas food for the Christmas meal, but also stock up on regular food since I think we'll be stuck inside for a few days. Why will we be stuck inside? There is a massive snow storm that is due to hit us over Christmas. This makes me nervous for all of my precious family members that are due to be traveling during said storm. However, if we are all well and safe, I'm looking forward to a snowy Christmas and the coziness that the snow will bring. I'm still trying to find Rock Band for the Wii (it's a new video game) so we have something to do while my extended family is over and I'm going to pull out lots of board games and cards, too. I just pray that we are all able to be safe during this holiday season. This means your family, too!!

I guess I don't have much more to say. Apparently, I'm having "blogging withdrawal" from not posting every day lately. :)

Macy's 2009

Every year, it's a tradition that I bring the kids downtown for lunch with Daddy around the holidays, and we make a stop on the 8th floor of Macy's to visit their Christmas display and also see Santa. This month as been jam-packed, so it was hard to find a day to spend downtown. We ended up making last Tuesday our "Macy's Day", however, and it was so much fun!! Not only did we get a few "to-do" items crossed off our list (a trip to the bank and applied for a passport for Hannah), but the kids also "helped" Daddy set up the Christmas tree in his office. Then we made our way to Peter's Grill for lunch.

I was a little bit "camera happy" while we waited for our food to arrive....



Then, we finally headed over to Macy's. The walk-through display was the same as last year ("A Day in the Life of an Elf") so we walked kind of quickly through the crowd to get to Santa. We were in luck when we got there: no line! The kids got right in to see him and Caleb, once again, had no qualms about sitting right up on Santa's lap and telling what he wants for Christmas. Hannah was apprehensive about Santa, as we expected she would be, but she was fine to sit on Mommy's lap, right next to Santa.

(Picture to be posted soon....if I can get it to scan correctly!) :)

Santa had some extra time after the pictures, so he told us some secrets about the reindeer and his workshop. (I'll let you in on part of it: reindeer fly when they eat cookies! Who knew this? No wonder the carrots that we leave on Christmas Eve are always the thing that's left over in the morning.... j/k) By the end of the conversation, Hannah had warmed up to Santa and was talking his ear off, which was nice to see! (I'm hopeful that next year I won't have to be in the Santa picture---yay!!)

Caleb's favorite part of the day occurred right after our Santa visit. Each child got to pick out a cookie to eat as we passed "Santa's bakery" and they both picked out gingerbread men. I was able to get one quick action-shot of the kids enjoying their cookies in front of Macy's poster...


And enjoying them, they were!!



It was such a fun day. I wish there was something like this to go to in the summer so we could do this more than once a year, but I suppose that's the fun of the Christmas season. (Does anyone else feel like it's going by too fast this year????)

Bad Elf....Again

Some of you might remember this post from last year. It's all about how I hid the "Santa gifts" in a room I thought Caleb couldn't get in to, but he ended up seeing his gifts anyways. This year, I was once again a "not very smart" elf. (When will I learn???) Yesterday, I helped Caleb write a letter to Santa. He wrote about what he wants for Christmas and how he's been good. Then he wanted to include what Hannah wants for Christmas (since she's too small to write a letter of her own). (On a side note, he then said that Hannah has NOT been nice this year because she knocks down his block-towers every day, but when I asked if we should write that, Caleb said, "No...say that she's been good." Ha! Way to look out for your sister, buddy!!) Anyhoo, Caleb signed his name on the letter, then we sealed it up and put a "Santa stamp" on it. Last year, I got this really cute little mailbox for sending letters to Santa. If you put the letter in the mailbox (which is in our kitchen) and put the flag up, then "elves" will come by while you're sleeping and take the letter. So, we put the letter in the mailbox and put the flag up. Last night, while Caleb was sleeping, I (the elf) took the letter out and put it in a safe hiding place in the kitchen. When Caleb woke up, we were all excited to see that the letter was gone. "Elves" came into our house while we were sleeping! What magic! It would be nice if the story would end here, but no....this is where I made my mistake. Mid-morning, Chris and Caleb ran some errands, including getting some toiletries at Walgreens. By habit, I always pile stuff that is supposed to go upstairs on our stairs and just take it up the next time I go up that way. I'll fill baskets and bags on the stairs to save space and take care of it later. I ended up sticking the Santa letter in the bag with the toiletries, thinking that I'd put the letter in Caleb's keepsake box, which is upstairs. The bag with the letter in it sat there for well over an hour, and I didn't think of it again until I walked past the stairs and noticed that the letter was in clear view! Caleb wanted something from the bag and saw the letter for sure!! My attempt at "making magic" in our house was ruined by me. Again. Chris said not to worry about it until Caleb asked about the letter. I thought I was in the clear until just now when Caleb said, "Mom, where's the Santa letter?" I said that I didn't know. Caleb said, "It's over there in the bag. Elves didn't come while we were sleeping, so they don't know what to make us for presents yet. So, they're making different presents for us right now!!!" Luckily, he didn't seem sad by it, so I said that I must have forgot to put the letter in the mailbox and we'll put it in there again tonight. I'm thankful for the forgiveness of 4-year old minds, but also know that I can't get anything past this kid!!!

Chris' Arm

Well, some of you might be wondering about Chris' arm. If you're not, you are saying "What the heck?" about now. So, I'll tell you the whole story so you can all be "up to date". :)

Chris went hunting last weekend (as you all know) and shot an 8-point buck. Many other hunters up there were also successful in their hunting this year (great job, boys and girl!) so on Saturday evening, they decided to get the deer ready for the butcher. Chris was helping with this, of course, but ended up injuring his arm during the cleaning of the first deer. Basically, he was throwing the hind-quarters into the woods (about 40 pounds) and as he threw forward, the hip of the hind-quarters went back, therefore throwing-off Chris' throw. He was throwing with some force, so went the hips went back, it caused his arm to compensate. Chris heard a "ripping sound" come from his right bicep and he was in immediate pain. Within a day, his whole forearm was bruised and swollen. Also, when he would flex his bicep, a muscle that had never been there before would flex near his elbow. (Ewwww.....) So, Chris went to the doctor on Monday but could only get in to see a physicians assistant. That lady told Chris to squeeze her hand and when he did, she basically said that he was "fine". Chris said "Seriously?" to which she replied "Well, we could give you an xray..." which of course, turned up nothing since it doesn't show soft-tissue. Anyways, a couple more days went by and Chris' arm still looked really bad. He finally called his regular general practitioner and got in to see him yesterday. His doctor, like the physician's assistant, said that Chris would be fine but gave him more information. He said that it most likely WAS a bicep tear, but biceps heal very quickly so he should be fine. If it had been a tendon tear, THEN Chris would require surgery and he would have lost a lot more range-of-motion. Getting more information was exactly what we needed and it's so good to know that Chris is going to be okay!!!

To read more about the guys' hunting experience, read the SanChiJeBaNoBe blog and/or The Traveler's Blog.