Christmas 2010

Christmas vacation started for Payton at noon on the 23rd! She got off the bus just minutes before Brian's parents and sister's family arrived. We had a nice day celebrating Christmas a little early with them (they headed back to the UP that night), and the girls were just giddy about that!

Christmas Eve was pretty low key. My parents and uncle came early in the week and stayed with us, so we all watched National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (My favorite!), went to church, then all the Korby's (Nicole's family, Val's family, us, my parents and uncle) headed to Olive Garden for dinner. That was SO nice! We got a room to ourselves and I didn't have to clean my kitchen when we were done:) Nicole was working nights over Christmas, so we went to her house for a bit before she had to leave. The girls were so excited for Santa that there was not a peep from them after we got them into bed. Because of my family staying with us the girls were both in Payton's bed (it is a full size bed), so bedtime involved a lot of giggling and kicking each other...

Brian and I were the first ones up on Christmas morning. Who gets up before their kids? Seriously! But the coffee was made and we were ready to go by the time the girls came down. Val and her family came down mid-day, Nicole and family joined us all for dinner. And the best part... we all sat down together in our kitchen:) We had a house full, and loved every minute (well, maybe minus the kitchen clean-up:)). At the end of the day we were all just pooped.

Some favorite gifts that the girls got were their Zhu Zhu pets (we officially have a small herd), Payton got her coveted Ruthie (american girl doll) , Addie got her magic rise oven from Santa, and Santa brought me an Amazon Kindle (hoorah for me!). Brian got a lot of stuff that I won't drag on about! Let's just say he needs to get going on his workbench downstairs to put it all away. Payton is off this entire week from school, so she is busy putting all her new toys to good use, and Addison is pretty happy to have her at home with us:)

Gearing up for Christmas!

Friday night the girls went to my sister's house for a few hours so that Brian and I could finish up the daunting task of gift wrapping! And I am happy to say we are nearly done! We went and picked up the girls and did a Christmas light tour of Appleton. The best part? The girls fell asleep in the car on the way home:)

Saturday morning we decided to head to the mall to get the last couple of gifts we needed. Fortunately we headed out early and knew exactly where we needed to go, so that trip went just fine. And we had to stop at the tea store to get a couple of holiday teas to try out before we couldn't get them anymore! Love that store! Then off to lunch with the girls. Then we FINALLY (I say finally because we have been meaning to do this for weeks) took the girls to see Tangled. We don't often take the girls to movies, but when one comes out that we know they would love we go for it. Payton especially liked it, and Addie didn't try to run off, so I guess that means she liked it too!

The highlight of our Saturday was going to a local "production" of "The Streets of Bethlehem". It was an actual "street" with people, houses, shops, animals, manger... all set like it would have been back when Jesus was born. We had to wait in line only about 35 minutes or so to get in, but it was a great thing for us to do, and Payton and Addie seemed to enjoy it too. As we were leaving Payton asked "But I thought Jesus was a grown up?" Which then we had to explain that the newborn baby in the manger was not the actual Jesus, but a baby "pretending" to be Jesus so we could see what it would have been like for him... Kids are so literal, and funny!

After Bethlehem our niece and nephews came over so Nicole and Jason could have a couple of hours to do some of their Christmas wrapping. It was a Wii extravaganza! All in all a busy, but good day. Now to cleaning the house, laundry, baking.... to gear up for the families this week:)

Welcome December!

December first has brought us a winter wonderland outside! After spending Thanksgiving weekend in Negaunee the girls are ready for winter. They got to play in the snow a lot and loved every second over our long weekend up there. Payton was almost sad to get home and see that there was still no snow at home. She keeps saying "Winter is my favorite season!" She was not disappointed this morning when she left for the bus stop as it started to snow:) And looking at our forecast it seems that it is here for a while.