The Obligatory Pictures In Front of the Tree

We had a very relaxing Christmas at home. I love staying at home for Christmas and declared to my family that we weren't going anywhere, but everyone was welcome. And so they came. We celebrated early with Darren's family as they were going to International Falls to have Christmas with the in-laws. My parents stayed the longest ever arriving on Friday and leaving the afternoon of Christmas Day. We did family Christmas on Friday night. Reid and Anissa are at fun ages. Anissa just wanted paper and boxes and Reid loved everything and squeeled with delight after opeing every gift. Except the gift we gave him, which was a perfect Reid-sized backpack that he declared as being "just a little bit too big!" Eli and Sadie loved having their cousins over and were excited to watch them open their presents because for the whole month of December the kids have been finding toys and books that they declared they'd outgrown and wrapped them up for Reid and Anissa. Reid and Anissa had a lot of presents to open mostly because my kids loved wrapping up presents!

We spent Christmas Eve Day over at a friends house iceskating. I still can't get over how wonderful the ice is and how much I love iceskating. We let Eli open up one of his gifts early as he had a new pair of skates under the tree. Little did Dennis know that he also had a brand new pair of skates wrapped under the tree, but we made him wait. We went to Mass and both of my children fell asleep during the service which was at 5PM. We came home and had tacos for supper, which may sound a bit untraditional but it was perfect. Fast, tasty and my kids didn't complain! Then we opened presents and promptly went to bed as NORAD was telling us that Santa was in Illinois so we figured we'd better hurry!!

Christmas morning came early with the sounds of "Santa was here! Santa was here!" The kids opened presents and Sadie declared it a pajama day. We had Swedish Meatballs for lunch and watched the kids play wii which is what Santa brought for the kids. It was a nice relaxing, no stress kind of Christmas. Just the way it should be.

What I Got For Christmas

A local artist, Alice Blessing, painted this portrait of Eli and Sadie. The cool thing about Alice's technique is that she paints with her fingers! I'm so excited about how it turned out. I'm so happy with it. It's even better than I imagined. She captured Eli perfectly. She did give Sadie blue eyes, which she is going to redo into the melt your heart chocolate that they are. Then, I think Sadie will look perfect too. It's weird, I almost feel like they're teenagers or something.

Christmas Letter 2011

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Pond Skating

Growing up in ND, we would strap on our skates and walk down the gravel road to the coulee to skate. If we were lucky a dad had come and shoveled away the snow. The ice was always rough and the coulee small which left hardly any room for the girls to "figure skate" because the boys were hogging all the ice playing hockey. Not quite perfect but it was fun and it was all we knew.



When we first moved to MN, I'd heard on the local radio station about how rare perfect ice is on the lakes for skating. Usually because it's either windy when the ice freezes which makes the ice rough or because there's too much snow on the ice making it impossible to skate on. Well, this year the stars aligned and we have been given the gift of perfect ice for "pond skating" and we are so grateful. The ice is awesome: glassy, smooth and singing! We've been trying to take advantage of mother's nature gift and get on the ice as much as we can before it snows. It's actually quite nerve-racking. I know that the ice is a good 4-5 inches thick, but the ice is so glassy, it looks like at any moment you're going to skate right into the water. The kids are having a blast seeing through the ice and seeing the bottom of the lake along with frozen fish and all!

Sadie's Christmas Concert

The students at TLC pre-school put on a short Christmas program for their families on Wednesday night. It was funny and chaotic and cute. All of the things a Christmas Program should be. Sadie was very excited and wanted to wear her fanciest dress and have her hair done up like a princess. She wasn't feeling 100%, but I'd say she was way more involved than Eli was at his first Christmas program!! Here's a little hint of how the concert went:

Here is a cute picture of Sadie with one of her newest BFFs, Clara. Those girls have so much fun together. Not to mention that I love Clara's whole family. Clara's mom, Missy and I have become good friends this year. We spend a lot of time drinking coffee while the girls are at school!

Visiting Santa

Santa and Mrs. Claus came to visit the library this past weekend. We love seeing Santa at the library because somehow they always manage to get the real Santa not one of those silly elves that Santa sends to do his job when he's double booked. And Mrs. Claus, who really, let's admit, is the brains behind the operation always comes to help Santa out. The kids brought their letters just in case they forgot to mention what they really want for Christmas

What does Eli want? A wii with Mario Kart and sports resort. This is the first year that Eli has come home questioning Santa. Not because he doesn't believe but because he's heard things on the bus. I shake my fist at you yellow school bus!  Even when Caleb who seems to know everything in Eli's mind ("He can count to a million in one day, he told me, mom!") said that he doesn't believe in Santa Claus, Eli laughed at Caleb's lunacy.

What does Sadie want? Squinkies. The girl has hundreds of those rubbery things and the balls they come in. It's enough to drive a mom insane. But, apparently you can never have too many squinkies. Sadie's letter was quite humorous. She even promised to "leave a surprise" for Santa!

My niece and nephew, Anissa and Reid, were there too. Anissa could have cared less whose lap she was sitting on. Reid while brave enough to sit on his lap would not look at Santa.

We finished the day by going to the golden arches for lunch followed by selecting out Christmas tree. We didn't chop our tree down this year, but we should have. It was a balmy 30 degrees and there was no snow on the ground so it would have been much easier then in years past. But, we wanted to try another place. Pictures of our tree to come!!

School Photos 2011-2012

Sadie's Preschool Photo 2011-2012

Eli's Kindergarten Photo 2011-2012