Christmas in Review

It's time for the Christmas Review! I can't believe it was 3 1/2 weeks ago already that we left for our Christmas break back home. I'm going to do my best to summarize the trip without leaving out too many details.

December 20th: Flew out at 2:30pm, uneventful flight, picture below is how we roll through the airport! The kids loved seeing Chris's parents at the bottom of the escalator as we got to baggage!


December 20th: middle of the first night that we arrived, Chris and I woke up to someone puking. It was Max and I couldn't believe it. It was around 6 hours after we got there and someone was already sick! We have horrible luck at Christmas so I'm not sure why I was surprised. I won't dwell too much on us being sick, but we all got sick at one point...Max tested positive for Influenza A...the rest of us probably had it or a version of it. Being away from home and being sick is not too much fun, but it also can be a blessing. We didn't have to worry about meals, we had someone to go get prescriptions for us, plenty of help with the kids, etc. We felt really bad that we got lots of other family members sick and Uncle Jeff even had to miss a ski trip because he got so sick. After about 10 days we were all clear (and then had only 4 days left, but that's the way it goes sometimes) Below is a pic of Max watching something on the ipad while drinking hot water with lemon and honey. There was a lot of that going on!



December 20-25th: We spent that part of the trip in Maple Grove with Chris's parents and brother. Despite everyone getting sick, we enjoyed ourselves a lot. I got in some good quality shopping, had our annual trip to Nadia's cupcake shop (we're not bringing the kids next year...they just don't appreciate $3.50 cupcakes as much as Linda and I do:), played some cards, ate lots of yummy Christmas treats, visited family, saw some friends, saw Grandpa Bill a couple of times, Chris made it to a movie with his brother and dad, had his annual coffee with church friends, we made it to church twice, and I'm sure more that I'm forgetting! Present highlights: Ivy got a bitty baby (which she calls pretty baby), Mya got the stuff to knit potholders (haven't had time to help her with this yet, but she's asked over 1,000 times so hopefully we get to it soon!) and Max got Skylanders for his Wii. He was pretty excited about this because he didn't even wait for Chris to get it all set up. I opened the package and next thing I knew, he was playing!



December 25-28th: We spent these days in Decorah! Chris's parents lent us their car for the week so we didn't have to rent one which was so awesome. We got to my parents house and the kids were asking for Livi, Grace and Grady about 2 minutes in! They all came up and we caught up and did our Christmas that night. We had my favorite meal(heavy hors d'oeuvres and wine:)The rest of the time was spent hanging out with family, having sleepovers (the big kids slept at my aunt Mary's one night, Grace and Livi spent a couple of nights at my parents), being outside, swimming, playing, going to my aunt Mary and uncle Geoff's new house for a fun night, met a high school friend of mine at T-Bocks, we met my aunt Marilyn and uncle Adrian for brunch on Sunday at my favorite restaurant in Decorah, we played some 500, ate more good food, and tried to get healthy without passing it onto my family!

(Apparently I like to take pictures of people holding my nephew Grady! You can see why though...that kid is sure a cutie!)


December 29-Jan 1st: We hit the road to go visit some friends! First stop was in Parkersburg at our friends Joe and Tracy's. It was so fun to see them and their kids and their gorgeous new house! The kids see each other once or twice a year and they pick right up like they saw each other yesterday. We played some fun games (including bean boozled (you can buy it here if you're interested...I never thought I would ever eat a jelly bean that tasted like skunk or dog food or vomit or baby wipes...etc.) On Tuesday we got up early and headed to Dubuque for all 5 of our dentist appointments and then saw some good friends and headed over to our old neighbor's house for dinner and a fun night! New Years Eve day we were lucky enough to see some other friends and then celebrate New Years Eve the same way we have for the past few years..with the Errthums! We had a great time and it just about broke my heart when we left because Max had tears in his eyes and didn't want to leave. He just loves his Dubuque buddies.



Jan 1st-Jan 3rd: We went back to Decorah only to find my parents had gotten our illness! Luckily, I don't think they had it as bad as we did and they didn't seem to be too bothered by it. (at least they acted that way..:) We spent the next day and a half watching some football, catching up on laundry, began the packing process, saw some cousins of mine that we don't see very much, saw my cousin Kelsey play a basketball game, and Mya had a sleepover at Olivia and Grace's house! We were gone 14 nights and Mya stayed at 7 different houses during that time! She went from someone who would never have a sleepover to someone who wanted to sleep somewhere different whenever she possibly could!

(That whole section was our family watching Kelsey play bb!)

(this is one of my favorites from Christmas...these three girls all with their "frozen" blankets and american girl dolls sound asleep:)


Jan 3rd: We flew out of Minneapolis at 11:30 so we got up realllllly early and made it to Grandpa Bill's by 8:45 or so. Had a cup of coffee, some breakfast and got a ride to the airport from Chris's parents. We had a couple minor mishaps at the airport and our gate got changed, but we ended up making it in plenty of time and had a smooth flight home! It was a great trip and it was great to get home. Our neighbor picked us up at the airport and dropped us off to a cleared driveway that he spent part of the morning doing so that was definitely appreciated! Thanks to everyone who made our Christmas such an enjoyable one! We appreciate everything you all did for us and we love you all so much!