New Year's Eve

After the holidays, we drove up to the cabin for a week.  We were there for New Year's Eve so we entered the holiday snow fest sculpture contest just so we could get a small prize and was surprised when we won 3rd place!  We earned 2 new sleds for our penguin making effort!

 This is the first year that we've let the kids stay up until midnight so they could see the firework show at Lakeside Lodge.  They loved it and had more energy than Vic and I at midnight!

December Happenings

December was a very busy month!  We came back from St. Louis, got ready for Christmas, had Vic's parents & brother Josh over for a weekend, had Tommy's birthday weekend, partied w/ the Wheelers, did Christmas treats for neighbors, a few Christmas activities around town, and got ready for Jason & Katie's visit.  For Jason's birthday party, we had 5 out of 6 of us kids there, both my mom and dad, and my Aunt Pam & cousin.  It was a few hours of bliss for me.  It brought back memories of what holidays were like when I was a kid.  Some people were watching movies, kids were running all over, some were napping on the couch, and the rest of us were playing games.  It was a wonderful end to the holidays.

A Very Merry Christmas

This Christmas I had the most family home for the holidays than we've had in at least 10 years!  It truly felt magical.  Growing up, we'd always get together at my Grandma's house and this Christmas brought back all those fond memories and feelings.  It was a wonderful week of visits with 4 of my 5 siblings.  I had Katie, Jason, Evan, my mom & my dad over for Christmas Eve.

 Jason and my mom came over for Christmas breakfast and opening presents.  We played with our new toys and games and then headed to Mom's house for dinner, presents, and games with Amber's family.

Visits from Santa & Jingles the Elf

I love seeing the magic & excitement that Santa & Jingles bring each year!  Tucker was especially cute this year as I caught him several times just staring at the Christmas tree or at Jingles.  The kids visited Santa at our church party.  Normally, they aren't that interested in him because they are sure he is a fake, but this one called them each by name so they were pretty sure he was the real one!

Thanksgiving

We started out Thanksgiving morning doing the St. Louis Turkey Trot.  Evie was the only one in Ben's family that wanted to run with us.  It was a pretty cold morning after we'd had a weekend of good weather, but it was fun to get out & start the day off right!

 The kids warmed up in the hot tub afterwards.

 When I asked Ben to play 5 crowns, he decided to dig out his Crown collection that he was pretty proud of.