Merry Christmas 2012!

The girls almost managed to stay in their bedroom until their sun lite up at 8 am but the waiting was torture for Miss Madison and she arrived at the bedside about 7:45 am ... I was impressed she stayed in their that long on Christmas Morning!

The girls were super excited to open the gifts from Santa Claus .. they were really wondering if the gift bag for each of them contained their wishes or something else ... 

Madison got her wish and has yet to put down her Baby Butterscotch Fur-Real Friend, she loves her!

By the expression on Alyssa's face, we can only assume that Santa came through with her request of Create-A-Monster sets!

They also found lots of goodies in their stockings and had fun comparing their gifts to each other.   They also got to open the rest of their gifts from us and loved everything from the Dizzy Dancers to the Zhu-Zhu horse and, of course, their new Monster High Bedding sets!

After opening gifts at home, we got dressed and headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's to spend the day their with family.  The girls played Santa Claus with Josh's help and they managed to get all the gifts passed out to the right people.

From facial expressions alone, the girls were having a great time.  Everyone got wonderful and thoughtful gifts and Granny M has enough chocolate to keep her going for at least a few weeks now!

Grandma and Grandpa loved their canvas print of our trip to Lambeau Field as well as the gift card and the memory book.  Grandpa surprised Grandma by replacing her long lost charm bracelet and managing to replace nearly every one of them with new versions ... love that he did that for her!

Uncle Kory created one of the best gifts ever for Grandma and Grandpa ... they finally got their Major Award direct from France!

And this picture pretty much sums up our holiday together ... we love our family ...

Christmas Eve at Our Home

Grandma, Grandpa, Granny M and Sherrin joined us at our home for the evening.  It was a quiet and low key Christmas Eve, but it left us plenty full and ready for even more fun tomorrow when the Barkers arrive at Grandma and Grandpa's!

The girls were hyper-aware of time today, asking if it was time for bed yet (starting at about 9 am) as they didn't want to risk the chance of Santa Claus skipping our home if they were awake.  I eased their fears a bit during the evening by tracking Santa for them on Norad on my laptop.  They were off to bed quick as a flash when we announced he was heading toward the East Coast to begin delivering to the United States.

Before their quick exit to bed though, they had a great time opening a few gifts from us as well as their gifts from Farmor.  They loved the new tunics they received and thought their new wallets were GREAT!  Farmor also sent some money to them to buy whatever they wanted ... we are narrowing down the choices and will head out shopping after the holiday rush dies down a bit.

 

I didn't manage to capture Grandma with the camera, but Grandpa and daddy were relaxing here with full tummies!

Sherrin also visited with us for a while this evening and brought lots of goodies for everyone.  We are so lucky to have such wonderful people involved in our lives and the girls.  Their just adore Grandma and Grandpa and Sherrin is like another family member to us all.

Granny M was along for the fun as well and the girls got some snuggle time in with her as well in between gifts and candy snacks!

Whiskey River Christmas Eve Breakfast!

Here we are again ... Whiskey River ... for our annual Christmas Eve breakfast!  No better way to kick off the holiday than spending it with family and extended family!  This year Del and Joan were able to join us again and it is always fun to catch up with Kory's parents.  We were a party of 12 and once again were lucky enough to get our regular table with a terrific view of the birds outside at all the feeders.

My choice of beverages to kick of the start of Christmas ... who knew my drink would contain a meal in it ... it was yummy by the way!

The girls opted for a sweeter way to start their day with hot cocoas ... which they thought were pretty darn good!

The turkeys didn't grace us with their presence at the feeders this year, but we did get to see hundreds of Blue Jays, Cardinals, yellow finches and purple finches along with several very well fed squirrels!  Once again ... such a great start to all the fun of the season!

Time to Head Home

This morning we were up early to head back home to Minnesota after our two day visit with Granny B.  We had a wonderful time and hope that the time will  be short before we have the chance to return.  We love this Granny tons!

Busy Day with Granny B!

We arrived in La Crosse, Wisconsin last night and today we decided to get Granny B out of her apartment to finish up her last minute Christmas shopping.  Of course, we HAD to go out to breakfast first at our beloved Hungry Peddler.  Daddy was looking forward to his regular steak and eggs and the girls had their hearts set on their yummy pancakes, eggs, bacon and hot cocoa!

We got a bit of a late start and ended up getting to the restaurant later than our usual time, so we had to wait for a table for about 20 minutes.  The girls entertained themselves with their Explorers and Granny had a chance to visit with old friends who happen to be enjoying breakfast out themselves.

We finally got our table and the girls were all smiles as their hot cocoas arrived with lots of whipped cream!

 I had to give Granny another hug from Aunt Carrie per her request via Facebook after I checked in out status at the Hungry Peddler ... mostly just to brag to the family back home that we were there and eating!

After enjoying a great breakfast, we headed out to help Granny finish up her Christmas shopping.  She had a small list of gifts she still needed to buy and we were happy to help her with this.  We were extremely successful with a stop at Walmart and the Dollar Store.   Peter and I needed to stop by the coffee shop to get Granny a couple bags of fresh ground coffee beans (we never leave her empty handed when we visit) and get me a mocha.

We decided to relax at Granny's for a few hours before heading out on our next adventure.  Peter took this opportunity to take a broken TV Granny had in her office in for recycling.

We had planned to take Granny and the girls to the Rotary Lights in Riverside Park and decided to let Granny decided where she would like to eat dinner before the lights.  She decided that it had been a long time since she enjoyed The Olive Garden and with that statement we were off to get Granny soup and salad!

The girls entertained themselves with my iPad while they waited for their dinner and the rest of us had salad.

Granny even decided to join Peter and I with a glass of wine with her dinner.  We managed to hit the restaurant right before the dinner rush, so it was nice and quiet without all the commotion that the last minute holiday shoppers bring with them as they wind down for the day.

Riverside Park was out last destination of the day to view the traditional Rotatory Lights in the Park.  We had to wait in a line of cars for about 20-25 minutes before we made it into the actual park, but we thought it was worth it when the girls got to see all the lights!

Ms. G's Class Holiday Party

I volunteered to help out at the girls' classroom holiday party today and I brought my camera with me, but I was so busy at my station (arts and crafts) that I only had time to click one quick picture of the rotation that the girls were in at my area.

I got to help all the kiddos decorate gingerbread foam cutouts and foam presents with glitter glue and sparkles.  There were many other stations that included games, bingo, reading and cookie decorating.  The girls had a great time.  The party lasted until lunch time.

I arrived back at the school to pick the girls up early so we could head to Wisconsin to visit Granny B before the holidays.  I found the girls 3/4 of the way through a viewing of The Polar Express with their friends at school.

They had a GREAT day and were even more excited to finally visit Granny B again ... let the holiday week begin!!!

Sock Hop at JES

The students at JES have earned enough Caught You Being Good awards to enjoy an impromptu sock hop in the hallways of the school!  The Kindergarten through 4th graders attending JES all got their groove on during a hallway dance session reward.  I pulled this picture from the school's Facebook page as I noticed Miss Madison doing her traditional "horse" dance in this picture.  She is just behind the boy in the front of the picture with her arms up in the air (white sleeves and black front on her shirt).  I am sure if I had a magnifying glass handy that her sister is in this crowd somewhere too!

Bumble Lollipops ... Behind the Advent Door

The girls have been opening an advent door every day this month and today they found Bumble lollipops and loved them!  Brings back good memories of my childhood, watching Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and the Bumble ...

Holiday Concert 2012

Tonight was the JES 1st Grade Holiday Concert.   The looked so cute and grown up in their dresses (which they had picked out themselves at the store).

 

The girls did a wonderful job and we could see them singing their little hearts out for every song.  They are part of a very large group of 1st graders at JES and the auditorium was bursting at the seams with parents and grandparents trying to get seats for the performance, the stairs were even full on the bleachers!

After the concert, we went out for dinner with grandma and grandpa.  I think the restaurant was a bit surprised at the surge in business as it took over an hour to get our food ... but we had good company so it wasn't all bad!

Mankato Ballet Presents The Nutcracker Suite

Tonight the Girl Scout Troop was supposed to attend the Mankato Ballet's production of The Nutcracker Suite.  The weather caused the Troop Leader to cancel the activity, but our tickets had already been bought and paid for ... so ... I decided to take the girls anyway.  We had purchased an extra ticket hoping daddy would be home but since he was working, we invited one of the girls "BFF" Tawnie to join us on the outing.

The girls rode terrific in the car for the 50 minute drive to Mankato, watching Madagascar 3 and giggling the whole way.  We stopped at McDonald's in Mankato for dinner before the show and the girls loved the little Moshi Monsters they found in their Happy Meals!

The fog was thick and it was raining (weather I normally wouldn't complain about in Minnesota in December) but it caused us to nearly miss the beginning of the show as I couldn't see enough to find the Performing Arts Building on the college campus.   Fortunately, I stopped and asked the right person and we got there just in time to grab our tickets and find our seats.

The girls loved the ballet although asked why nobody was talking (like a play).  It was a 2 hour show and they did wonderfully but started tiring by the end of the show and all three were curled up in balls in their seats, but still staring at the stage!