Christmas in the Mountains 2013

We spent 6 glorious days in the mountains with my family.  My brothers and sister-in-laws were all in town, and present for at least part of our time there.  We all arrived on the morning of the 26th and dove into the presents.  The girls were spoiled, as always.  One of the really special gifts was given to Cecilia from her Godparents- Uncle Pat & Aunt Sarah.  She got the book "The Sparkle Box".  It is a very sweet book about giving to those in need and good deeds.  I hope her sparkle box fills up as the years go by.

 

For dinner that night, we had a fried turkey.  Jon was at the helm and the other men were his crew.  We ended up eating a little late because the oil that mom had bought for the turkey was in the garage and it had congealed in the jug.  It had to be thawed in the bathtub before it could be put in the fryer.  The turkey was the most delicious turkey I've ever had!

Cecilia got to put the angel on the tree this year.  She was so proud of herself when she finally got it up.  It was adorable!

The rest of our time was spent building puzzles, going on walks, trying to sled down the driveway, building gingerbread houses, playing games, and hanging out.  

I started the puzzle building- a 1500 piece puzzle that might be finished by next christmas.  

Pat, Sarah, and Pete did the majority of the big gingerbread house this year.  They built it based on the Weasley Burrow from Harry Potter.  It turned out fantastic!

We spent so much time playing and making memories, that by Monday afternoon the house was a bit of a disaster.  Mom and I came back from a walk, only to realize that we needed to do some serious picking up before we could make any more memories.  Hehehehe.

It snowed on Saturday night.  Nora was being extra fussy and Pops scooped her up and took her out side to see the snow flakes.  She immediately calmed down and was fascinated with the snow.  We were not so fascinated on Sunday when Minnie the Van got stuck in the driveway when we were trying to get to church.  The boys had to use chains and muscles to get me out, and then my Dad had to tow us out of the driveway.

My Aunt Jenny came up on Monday night.  She came bearing gifts, and the most popular gift was this awesome bluetooth speaker!  Stylish sound!

I've talked about the awesome view from my parents house many times before.  This next picture is the view as you come around the top of Kenosha Pass.  It takes my breath away every time.  Through the course of the weekend, I made a point to take pictures of the view at different times of the days.  I would love to set up a camera to take a picture for every hour for a year and then put it together in a flip book or video.  Yes, the view is that awesome!

New phones!

Jon and I have finally joined the 21st century!  I have been patiently waiting to upgrade my phone for over a year.  The day finally arrived on December 20th.  I was able to talk with the Verizon people and order our new phones and they were delivered on the 23rd!  Jon's phone was from 2008, it was so old that when any one texted him as part of a group message from a smart phone, Jon's would freeze up and shut off.  He was in desperate need of a new phone.  We are now sassy and classy and fancy with our new phones.  I got the iPhone 5s in gold (ohhhhh ahhhhh!) and Jon opted for a Samsung Galaxy s4 (woooo yaaaaaa!).  I am so excited to be able to snap a photo anytime, and to be able to have my calendar, email, dropbox, everything right with me all the time.

Christmas Day 2013

Christmas day was filled with smiles this year.  Santa came, and baby Jesus appeared in all of our nativities.  I think my girls were more excited to see baby Jesus than they were to see the presents under the tree.  That makes my heart happy :)  

We headed off to mass to celebrate Christmas properly.  It took an extra push because Mass was at 8, and not 8:30, which is the usual time we go to church.  We made it and we visited the nativity after mass to see baby Jesus in there too.  Lilly Jeanne was so cute because she wanted to "hold the baby Jesus".  

Presents were opened and played with and then naps were had. Grandma Cheryl joined us for dinner and more gifts.  It was a perfect day.
 

Christmas Eve 2013

My girls were so cute in their matching dresses this year.  You should have seen my mom and I at Kohls racing between the infant, toddler, and girls sections holding up dresses like traders on the floor of Wall Street.  I'm sure it was comical to the other shoppers, heck, it was comical to me.  

We celebrated Christmas Eve at Ma and Pa's house with the family and close friends.  Our attempt at a nice family Christmas picture was, well, lets call it a "good try".

My youngest cousins really do adore my girls, and they are so sweet with them.  Little Andrew is totally enamored with my Nora and he wants to hold her all the time.  It is so cute.  

We had a delicious meal with tons of fixin's followed by my favorite tradition of Pa reading the Christmas story from the family bible.  This year was special because the grandkids paid for the family bible to be rebound.  It was literally falling apart and was only brought out for this tradition.  My brother Pete headed up the effort.  It turned out beautifully.

My brothers and I posed for a pic at the end of the night.  Its been a while since it was just the four of us in a picture.  Gosh, I have some tall and handsome brothers.  For the record, I'M THE OLDEST!

 The night was successful, the girls were all asleep before we even hit the highway to go home.  

Preparing for Christmas

This year, our halls got decked in about the same way they always do.  One big difference was that the ornaments on the tree covered the tree and didn't start at 4 feet up.  The big girls helped decorate and they put all their own ornaments on this year.  Lilly Jeanne got to put the Angel on the tree this year.

We read lots of Christmas stories all through December, and the girls were very excited for Jesus' birthday.  We also had one of Santa's elf's join us for the month of December.  He hid in various places throughout the house and watched the girls so he could report back to Santa.  Lilly Jeanne decided he would make a good dancing partner one day...

We attempted to see Santa at the Candy Cane Festival at Hammond's Candy Factory, but we were too late in the day to accomplish this.  Instead we took a short ride on a little train and visited the outdoor shop they had set up.





Cecilia got to sing two songs with her class from school for their Christmas program.  They sang Rudolph and Away in a Manger.  There is something so adorable about 3 & 4 year olds performing.

My awesome Mom and I "ran" the Ugly Sweater Run on the 21st.  It was my first 5k since having Nora, and I have only run a few times since she came.  I was pretty proud of myself.  I think that I ran about 2/3 of it and only walked about a third.  Not too shabby for 3 kids and no training.  My mom, however, ran the whole thing.  She rocks.  I hope I'm that good in 20 years too.