Holiday Season Review...

Whew! What a whirlwind our holiday season has been. As tiring as it is to travel everywhere, stay up late wrapping, baking, etc.--I love this time and year and it is worth it. With so many activities, there's more info to write than I've got room for. So, here's the very abbreviated version....in a nutshell....

Our Holiday Events:
Little B's Christmas "program"--organized chaos is more like it...the kids attempt to sing, and there's moments of cuteness. I appreciate that the daycare even tries to do this program! Here's little B with one of his fave teachers, Mr. John. The kids LOVE this guy. As it turns out, little B came down with the flu at 1:30am that night (fortunately ribB and myself were still up wrapping gifts...poor little B thought it was time to get up since we were still in our day clothes...). Little B got sick more than Kdee ever has--it was non-stop. Poor thing. By 5pm that day, he was finally keeping some minor things down...

Christmas #1--with Uncle Bart, Aunt Donna, Ana & Cassie...always an awesome time. We ordered pizza in, opened awesome gifts (the kids especially enjoyed their (B): tool set/Stihl play saw and (K): High School Musical dance game; ribB got lots of Jack and I got some sweet pearls!). We could hang out with these guys all day, everyday. What fun. Pics include the kids & Bart, Donna and Cassie showing her homegirl ways with the tool set.

Christmas #2--with Great Grandma Loney...What a sweetheart she is. She always seems to find special gifts that the kids enjoy, no matter how simple they are. We made it easy with some KFC & lots of cookies. She always tries hard to make it special and we loved being with her.

Christmas #3--with Aunt Marlys & Uncle Wayne...a special stop after being with my Grandma, we made a visit to my dad's sister's house to play Santa with some gifts. I love spending time with them because it makes me feel closer to my dad during this special season, and I love their humor and good nature. It was a wonderful visit, full of Kdee learning to knit and the kiddos banging on the piano (ear muffs!).

Christmas #4--with Grandma/pa R and family...we traveled to La Crosse after a partial day of work and enjoyed our first family get together since the big wedding! It was nice to hang out and catch up, as well as opening many memorable gifts. The kids loved playing with their cousins, too, and were thrilled to receive some of their fave gifts--Geo Traxx (B) and The Spiderwick Chronicles books (K). We loaded up on lots of treats, that's for sure!

Christmas #5--at home after the return from La Crosse. Can you believe Santa came to both La Crosse and Home?!?! Wow! He sure knows how to make the kids day. (He didn't leave much in LaX, but it appears he wanted to be sure the kids had a little something during their stay there.) The hit gifts for the kids were more GeoTraxx (B) and a bike (K). We definitely made a night of it...and were wiped out when the evening was done.

Christmas #6--a day trip to Reedsburg WI and back...ribB was on call, so in order to go to his extended family get together, we needed to do 7 hours of driving in one day. Always a challenge with little ones, but luckily they managed pretty well. We were so excited to see ribB's grandpa and aunts, uncles, cousins, close family friends...it was a very nice get together. The trip wrapped up nicely with a stop at the Norske Nook in Osseo, where I was in lefse heaven. Yum. Even though I made my annual batch of lefse this year, there's something about being able to order it out at such a fabulous place. Of course, we had to have a piece of their famous pie there...everything is from scratch and it is too incredible. (Mine was lingonberry/apple...yum!)

New Year's Eve--a really nice, low-key night at home after long days at work. Games, chocolate fondue and silly TV were the forte' of the night. ribB was still on call and fortunately didn't receive any emergency calls--that's almost unheard of! Whew!

Christmas #7--New Year's Day with my mom & Paul. The kids got to do lots of snowmobiling and we relaxed, relaxed, relaxed. It was a very nice wrap up and we ate way too much food and opened more fun gifts (we are so blessed!). We had good laughs as little B opened his ImagiNext dinosaur (which almost freaked him out when it moved!) and Kdee about jumped out of her socks for her "Bratz movie fashion doll". I know, I know...Bratz.

Now life gets back to "normal". (In other words, we're trying desperately to catch up on housework, laundry, putting away Christmas decor & gifts...not bad things by any means, just a little tiring (or temporarily overwhelming to look at!).

We hope your new year is starting off with a bang--ours certainly is!