Merry Christmas!...2 1/2 weeks later.

I promised I would deliver and I am....it's been a tish busy around our house, and it will continue to be (f.o.r.e.v.e.r.) for the next few weeks, with Jocie's birthday celebrations (the next two weekends) and a trip to Iowa the following...."and these are the days of our lives" :) But who's complaining?! As someone once told me, "You're only as busy as you want to be"...

We had December 23rd off from school this year, so we decided it would be a great day to do some Christmas baking, or in our case, non-baking. We had already had our fill of Christmas cookies for the year, because I ordered a cookie tray as a fundraiser, so we decided it would be a good idea to make some Oreo Truffles instead. Oreo Truffles should be illegal. You take a package of Oreo cookies and crush them. Then you mix in a block of softened cream cheese and you shape them into bite-sized balls, then you dip them in white chocolate....sinful!

We let Claire sculpt her own "balls" this year . . . she did a great job :)

On Christmas Eve, we followed our usual traditions of going to church, then coming home and having a candle-lit dinner followed by opening presents.

Here is a look at our girls opening gifts on both Christmas Eve and also opening Santa gifts on Christmas morning.

After we opened Santa gifts, it was on to packing up the van with the enormous amount of stuff we would need for the next 6 days. If I showed you the amount of stuff we packed you wouldn't believe me . . . let's just say that we had to use our pull-behind trailer to make it all work . . . no, I'm not kidding.

Our first trip was 5 hours due N.W. to Argyle, MN to spend Christmas with the Adolphsons.

We spent our 2.5 days in Argyle singing, eating, opening gifts, eating, playing games, opening more gifts, eating, watching movies, eating, opening more gifts, riding horse, and of course eating! So as you can tell, we were very spoiled :)


Keith and Ella on guitar . . .

. . . Annika and Claire on the bells.




they loved their new dress-up outfits :)

. . . and the boys loved their new John Deere gear.

Then it was off to Maple Lake to spend a few days with my Mom and Denny. We spent our time skating on the lake, opening gifts, lounging in out PJs way to long everyday, going for walks, eating, shoveling snow off the lake, skating, shoveling more snow and skating some more!! We had a ton of fun!









....that looks perfectly safe....

Daysha and Jocie showing off their slidding skills

Ella was a pro by the time we left the lake!

Claire wasn't so sure right away . . . . but then warmed up to it . . . a little.

lounging....ahhhhh, so nice.

Carl made a really cool skating track for our night skating the last night we were at the lake!

Nanny impressed us all! She can skate with the best of them....she just can't stop that well :)

Carl should have been a figure skater . . . always the show man.

We had a great Christmas vacation and like all fun things, it went way, way too fast! To be honest, I am still somewhat recovering, and feel as though I as still not caught up with my motherly chores...but I guess those will always be there, so oh well! :)

The next time I post, I will be the mother of a TEENAGER. Holy S-word!