Christmas Wrap-Up (haha)

I needed a bit of time to recover from our trip to California, post-Christmas. This trip has consumed us for so long, so it's hard to believe it's over. Packing for it was exhausting. The trip was not relaxing (fun, yes, but not stress-free.) We did a lot of waiting...waiting in lines, waiting on planes, waiting on buses, waiting for weather to pass. So when we made it back home, I needed some time to regroup, reset, and recover. And relax!

The Rose Parade trip will be the subject for next week's blog post, as this week will focus on our Christmas.

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve at my parents' house, with Grandma Deb joining in, as well. The butterball soup was excellent, as always (as was the rest of the food), and it was really good to spend the evening together with our closest family members, celebrating Christmas Eve.

Gotta read "The Night Before Christmas" on Christmas Eve!

We knew Santa was going to be little full of goodies, so we didn't set out too much food.

One of the final nights of lighting the Advent candles and doing a reading

The warm glow is so comforting against a snowy backdrop...

Santa came!

The tree and the dog :)

We've never been a family where the kids wake US up at 5am to open gifts. It was a very relaxing Christmas morning, where we slept in for a bit, opened the stockings, ate a late breakfast, and then opened the gifts under the tree. Very calm and not chaotic...perfect!

G got up at 2am and built the two Lego sets he received on Christmas Eve...2am!! He didn't make an noise, so we had no idea he was up that early.

Happy with the stockings!

Pria got treats in her stocking..she doesn't seem impressed.

Tired from all of the unwrapping

Relaxing for a few min in front of the fireplace

Time to open the gifts under the tree!

Ava made the hot chocolate unicorn bomb that came in her stocking. So cute!

Finally resting on Christmas afternoon, with Pria snuggled in close

How much stuff can we stack...?

Happy Holidays from our family to yours!

Comments

Grandparents, Birthdays, and Sprinklers, Oh MY!

What a whirlwind week we've had...I was trying to get everything wrapped up at work so I could take my 5-day "furlough" from last Wednesday, through tomorrow. Wednesday was my first day at home, so Ava and I had a ton of "fun" getting everything ready for the upcoming activities. I did have a wonderful massage, so that started my vacation off very well... Gramma Karen and Grampa Doug drove in from KC on Wednesday afternoon. We had a great evening catching up, and enjoying the nice weather (until the downpour that happened right as they were leaving our house!) On Thursday, Scott, Dad, Mom, and I drove down to Cannon Falls and Rochester to check out the areas for potential future homes/land for us. At some point, we'd like to move south of the Cities. Ava was a very good little girl, especially considering that she was stuck in a car for most of her FIRST BIRTHDAY!!! We went to Applebee's for lunch, and the wait staff came out singing to someone else...I...

Goodbye Sweet Spanky

This is a post that I'm not very excited to write. As you probably know, our oldest dog, Spanky, had struggled with health issues (ear infections, seizures) his whole life, and recently, his health had severely deteriorated. He hadn't been eating, his ear infection was so severe his face was swollen, he had a hard time getting up the stairs, and he very rarely wanted to play. Last week we got a few tail wags from him, and he ate a few bowls of food, but it was a 50-50 chance that he would actually keep the food down. On Thursday, we made the decision that if he wasn't any better by this weekend, we were going to put him down. I know Scott didn't want to make that decision as Spanky was a very special dog to him - he truly was his little buddy, following him around everywhere, wanting to be wherever Scott was, and howling his sadness whenever Scott would leave him. Throughout Friday night, it became clear that Spanky wasn't going to have a miraculous recovery...

Waffles and Helmets

Ava, Grandma Karen and I had a great end to the weekend last Sunday. We took a little adventure to Black: Coffee and Waffles, which is a small little place by the U which serves...waffles! I chose to have a savory waffle, Grandma Karen chose a fruit and granola waffle, and Ava chose to build her own with cinnamon, caramel, whipped cream, and marshmallows. Sweeeeeet! It was neat going someplace we hadn't been before, plus it gives Ava exposure to more than just her suburban life. She needs that. We then went and played at a local park, and Ava made a few new friends. It was perfect weather to sit on a bench and catch up with my mom! After 30 min or so, we rounded up Ava and headed off to the Wild Rumpus bookstore in the Linden Hills neighborhood of Minneapolis (by Lake Harriet.) We saw lots and lots of animals there (cats, chinchillas, rats, ferrets, birds) but no chickens! Bummer! It took forever to get Ava to narrow dow...

Go, Go, Goers!

Search This Blog