Skip to main content

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

Popular posts from this blog

Exploring Local Places

Last Sunday was the perfect day to explore an area that neither Arya nor I had been to before. We headed east to walk around the Vermillion Falls/River and Greenway area. The path was nicely paved, with lots of overhead shade from trees; there were so many families out on bikes and walking, and we had a nice view of the Vermillion River. Arya got some great pics, and I enjoyed spending time outdoors with my sweet girl. This weekend, G and I will be heading out to explore a creek area in a few towns just south of us. And I've already got an idea for another creek I want to walk by next month (it's a bit further away, and I'd rather put that aside until Arya is off at college) The tree leans to find the sun On the way home, we stopped at the DQ in another town (we have a love/hate relationship with the DQ in our town, so I wanted to avoid it.) The warm weather felt great, and we enjoyed some sweet treats while watching the world drive by. We're counting down the days unti...

What a Week

The weather has been unseasonably warm this fall, so we've been able to extend our outdoor projects just a bit.  This past week Scott's been working in the garden, cleaning everything out, and repairing the back wall of our garage.  Ava was such a good little helper, scooping up dirt, but still trying to keep her hands clean while doing it! I swear, a box is all she needs to make her happy. Princess Darla. Princess Darla has had enough.  I personally like how she and Ava have the same expressions in this picture. Apparently Spanky was bored - check out that yawn in the background! We went down to Grand Meadow this weekend, and as always, it was so fun to see Ava and Isabel play together.  They actually had several little conversations with each other - and they were so polite while doing so!  We even had them share a room last night...boy, that was a challenge.  I think they finally fell asleep around 10:00pm.  And of course, Ava wa...

All Done!

We made it! May was extra busy this year, leading up to Arya's graduation. And now that we are a week out from the chaos, I'm happy to report that we survived and are enjoying a slightly less busy pace in our days and nights. On Friday, May 29, 2026, 601 Rosemount High School seniors graduated, with the ceremony held at the University of St Thomas campus in St Paul, MN. It was a new venue for graduation this year, and it went really well. We were allowed six tickets in total, but were provided with a link for others to stream it on YouTube. We ended up parking at St. Kate's and shuttling over to St Thomas, so the parking situation was easy peasy for us. The ceremony was so well done, focusing on the triple A philosophy: academics, arts, and athletics. We are so proud of Arya, and can't wait to cheer her on in the next phase of her life! We did a pre-graduation photo shoot with a few friends from school Last day of high school! Red Pine is a special school in the distric...