Christmas Part 5

We spent the day at Auntie Becky and Uncle Mark's house for our last Christmas celebration of the year. It was a relaxing time, just hanging out with family, watching football and eating great food.


Andy and ET were Santa and passed out the gifts.


This Christmas Nate didn't really care a whole lot about the gifts, but he loved climbing on all the boxes. :)



Grandma traveled to Wisconsin for work recently. She went to Lambeau Field and picked up a few gifts for ET and Jay (Packer wallet, puzzle, figuirine, postcards, and keychains).

Here is Papa Jim putting a dollar in ET's new Packer wallet. That is one loving Gpa to support his Packer loving grandson! :)



Nate received some new feeding tools (suction cup bowl, bib clips, bendable spoon & fork, and a placemat).


Two indoor sandboxes from the Gurlea family!


I received a new programmable 3.5 quart slow cooker! :)

A new letter puzzle from the Galliks.


Becky and I got a great deal and went in together for a new set of pots and pans for mom and dad...something they have been needing and wanting for quite some time now.

Another perfect box for Nate to climb on.


Ever since ET saw cousin Andy stake the flag at the Wild hockey game earlier this December, he has been talking non-stop about getting his own skates and playing hockey. Andy passed down two jerseys (Montreal Canadians, and MN Wild), a hockey helmet, elbow pads, breezers, and knee pads. Now we just need to buy him some skates and he will be all set. It was very generous of the Galliks to give us all this equipment. They are pretty eager to have another hockey player in the family!

Christmas Part 4

It is officially Christmas Day and although we enjoyed time visiting with our families yesterday, we were pretty happy to have a relaxing day to ourselves. We woke around 8am, and the boys both slept in until 8:30am. They both woke up at the same time, which made it nice neither of them had to wait to open Santa gifts. ET noticed right away that Santa had eaten his cookies and drank the milk we set out for him. Both boys opened their gifts by the tree. Then we had a nice breakfast (sausage egg scramble, and cinnamon rolls). We spent the whole day just playing with the boys and opening their new gifts. I made a traditional turkey dinner with gravy, stuffing, green bean casserole, and a Christmas jello salad. After cleaning up a bit, the boys opened their gifts from Jay and I.
Here are the pics of the day...


Here the boys playing with a few of their new gifts...


A mini computer from Auntie Tammy and Uncle Scott.



A riding letter train from Papa Bob and Gma Darlyn.

A cloth "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" book from Santa.

A mini Frosty and Christmas tree Lego set from Santa.


Playing with Daddy and his new Transformers.

Here is Jay carving the turkey. I was making the gravy and we asked ET to go potty and wash up for dinner. It was at this time he decided to have a major meltdown in the bathroom. He thought it was a good time to tell me that he no longer wants to wear Sesame Street underwear because it isn't cool anymore. Sounds funny, but it wasn't fun trying to defuse a three year old when making the last minutes preparations for a special Christmas dinner! :)


Presents time! :)




For ET's first Christmas Jay and I said we would get him a gift that we would keep forever and take out every Christmas from now on. For ET we bought him the Fisher Price Santa train. For Nate we decided on the Fisher Price nativity set.

More Transformers! :)

A talking puzzle of the United States of America.


It is the end of the evening and the boys are watching good old "Mickey's Christmas" before heading off to bed. We will be celebrating Christmas part 5 at my sister's (Becky) house tomorrow.

Cookies for Santa

We left this morning at 9:15am and did not get home until 9:45pm. We drove a total of 315 miles and saw a total of 35 family members. Although it was a lot to fit in for one day, we are so fortunate to have such loving families to be a part of. It was nice that each family brought the real meaning to the holiday in different ways. We have so many blessings to be thankful for.

Both boys were so good all day, and never made a single peep in the car while driving a total of 6 hours the whole day. Although it was late when we arrived home, and the boys were tired, we still managed to set out cookies for Santa. ET was nearly in disbelief when I told him TONIGHT is the night Santa will come! Here are a few pics of him making Rudolph treats for Santa. :)




And now...Twas the night before Christmas and all through our house, not a creature is stirring not even a mouse (well, maybe Eddie is). The children are nestled all snug in their beds, and Jay and I are about to lay down for our long winter's nap. :) Merry Christmas!

Christmas Part 3

We left Wisconsin at 2pm, and arrived at Jay and Stacia's at 4:45pm. We had a wonderful time with my side of the family the remainder of the night before heading home around 8:45pm. Jay and Stacia provided a wonderful moist ham, and the rest of the families provided appetizers and goodies. Some of the entertainment was: singing "The 12 days of Christmas" - we split each day of the song by our birthday month, Jack reading the Christmas story from the Bible (Luke 2:1-20), Rick's devotion on the five senses of Christmas, Grandpa's movie - his story of hurricane Gilbert hitting Jamaica while vacationing, singing Christmas carols, the dice gift exchange, and ET singing "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!"