Biaggi's & Santa

Despite the trauma last night on our way home from making cookies when the girls heard the DJ on the radio announce that Santa Claus wasn't real ... yes this really happened and yes we had a lot of tears from Alyssa while Madison just had the reaction of serious denial.  We talked it all though and I did my best to make them understand and they still decided to keep our previously plans of vising Santa Claus tonight.

They both know that daddy and I are responsible for the gifts, but I hope that I made them understand that the magic of the season and of Santa is still there as long as they want to believe ... because I still believe in it.

I took the girls to Biaggi's for dinner and we had fun doodling on the table paper while we waited for our meal ... I took some inspiration from Madison's t-shirt obviously ...

After dinner we went to visit with the Big Guy himself and they were happy to have had a conversation and get their picture taken.  Madison has officially decided it is "creepy" to sit on a stranger's lap and I couldn't hardly argue the point with her ... notice she is sitting next to him instead of on him.

On the upside of finding out the truth ... they get to watch Gremlins tomorrow night as I was putting them off due to the fact they talk about Santa not being real in the movie too.

Christmas with the Hokanson's 2015

It is that most wonderful time of the year where we get together with the Hokanson's to make our annual Christmas cookies.  Tammy and I just cannot wait until they are old enough to roll all their own dough out for the sugar cookies while we enjoy a glass of wine!

We had two kiddos unwrapping candies for the pretzels while the other two cut out their sugar cookies and then they switched stations and did the opposite tasks, it seemed to work out rather well for the most part.

We took a dinner break and had some pizza and bread bites and then we got right back to work decorating the sugar cookies.

Each of the kiddos made their own gingerbread man shaped sugar cookie to decorate and then they promptly ate them after I got a quick picture of each!

We exchanged small gifts and plan to have an outing together to Buck Hill for some serious snow tubing down the hills after the holidays!!  Love that we have kept this tradition going for so long now!!

Graduation Weekend

This afternoon cousin Joshua graduated with a Bachelors of Arts from Bethany Lutheran College.  We all went to the ceremony and had a family dinner together afterwards at Grizzy's in Mankato.

After dinner, we headed back to our hotel room where daddy worked on his bid for work and I took the girls to the pool.

Unfortunately, Alyssa woke up around 4:00 a.m. throwing up and was running a fever of 101 by noon.  My pinning ceremony was at 9:00 a.m., so I had Peter drop me off and I joined my friend Emily and her family for the ceremony.  Peter, the girls and my family all showed up for the noon graduation ceremony where I graduated with my Bachelors of Science in Nursing from Minnesota State University - Mankato.  Alyssa was a trooper and toughed it out as she wanted to see her mommy graduate.  I am truly blessed ...

Visiting Granny B

Here we are back in La Crosse with daddy along with us to have a quick visit with Granny B before the holidays.  We took her out Christmas shopping Saturday afternoon and made homemade lasagna at her apartment for dinner.  We ended up out for breakfast at Rosie's as the Hungry Peddler was way too busy.  It was fun to try out another old favorite again and the girls thought it was funny that they got Packer colored gumballs from the machine!

We also stopped out to visit papa and leave him some holiday flowers and a shinny new nickel ... we miss you daily papa.

Decorating the Tree

It was a lazy kind of day here this morning and the girls snuggled in to watch a few cartoons together.

We did find a enough energy to get the Christmas tree decorated ... and what can we say ... the girls chose blue lights ... and it is blue!

Thank You For the Memories #4 & Happy Turkey Day!

Thanksgiving Day and Packer football ... what more can a person ask for really???!!!!  As a bonus, the #4 is being retired and we just couldn't let that happen without some recognition!

Kinda blurry but it is all I have to show our dinner ... it was great having Dick and Susie here to join us this year and a bonus to have daddy home too!

Just Goofing Around

I do not think the girls really look alike at all but apparently they do when they are both wearing silly glasses ... Madison is the top pic and Alyssa is the bottom pic!