Here are a few photos of our Christmas at home before we headed over to the neighbor's for brunch. It felt very strange to be home on Christmas!
Mikaela with her new "Briar Rose" or otherwise known as "Sleeping Beauty" gown on with shoes and crown. She's clutching her two puppies she got from Breakfast with Santa two years in a row.
Aiden with his new Ball Popper. He still squeals with delight when he turns it on!
Then we were happily surprised that the weather looked as if it were going to allow us to travel to MN! Even though we weren't going to get there until Saturday, everyone stuck around to see us before they left. Thank you!!!
It was fun to see everyone for Christmas even though it was not long enough. We got to meet Lily and Ian which I think was going to be the biggest heartbreaker if we had not been able to make it.
Before we got to Mom & Dad's the family had been busily working on a snow tunnel in their front yard. Unfortunately, we did not get to help construct it, but we did get to enjoy crawling through it! (and all our pics of this are on Mom & Dad's camera so I'll have to add them later! )
We did get to go snowmobiling too which was great fun - Mikaela and Aiden both had their very first ride on the snowmobile while riding in front of Papa. Mikaela liked it. She liked it enough that she rode again with Mommy. Then she wanted to ride again with Daddy. Aiden tried it with Papa. When he saw Mommy go by herself, he wasn't sure what was going on and wanted to be with me. So Aiden tried it again with Mommy. But when it came time to go on it again with Daddy, Aiden said no! It was more than I thought either of them would go. I thought both would be too scared to even try it!
Andy said he didn't want to get on because he would like it too much. Thankfully, he changed his mind. It's been a while since there's been enough snow when we are there to use it so I wasn't about to miss out!
Aiden was also introduced to the fabulous Big Loader set that has been a treasured toy of Papa's for many years. He was fascinated by the little trucks moving back and forth transporting the marbles from one spot the other. He could have watched it all day. (I think Papa enjoyed it too!)
One part of our trip to MN that we could have left out was the fact that the kids got the stomach flu. And then Grandma and Grandpa got the flu. And then Uncle Travis got the stomach flu... fun stuff! I don't want to see or hear anyone vomiting anytime in the near future!
The drive home was an absolute beauty compared to what we started off with the week before. The skies were clear, no precipitation, no fog, no ice on the roads. The only trouble we had was about half an hour before we reached our hotel. Mikaela was complaining that her tummy was hurting. Well, it had been several days since she had had an episode with the stomach flu and she was all better from that, so Andy and I were pretty certain that her only problem was that she hadn't pooped all day. She's not a big fan of using the rest areas. We have finally gotten her over the fear of peeing on public toilets, but not so much with the #2! So once we got to the parking lot of the hotel, I unbuckled her and told her that she could stretch out and move around in the car while we waited for Daddy to check us in. I also told her that maybe she should try to toot and see if that would help. Sure enough after several air blasts later, her tummy felt much better and the car was not smelling so good any more!
As for life here, we're back to normal I guess. It's hard to believe that this week is practically gone and we're past all the holidays for a while. We still have to take down the tree and decorations (and I'm soooo ready!) which will be done this weekend and then maybe it will seem like Christmas is really over....
