Christmas Eve 2009

Despite the multiple inches of rain/snow that threatened to derail our truck from 169 on Christmas Eve, we made it to Southern Minnesota safely and somehow even in time for church! It was very special to be back in the church we were married in over 8 years ago; singing candlelit Christmas carols with the girls and my parents. 

From there we safely made it to my grandparent's home to spend the evening with Oma & Opa (as they are affectionately called by Hadley and Piper). We were also lucky enough to spend it with my Aunt LeAnne (who I am named after!), Uncle Dan, and my cousin Lindsay. The highlight for Hadley was likely the discovery of "debiled" (deviled) eggs and getting to see where Grandma used to sleep, and for Piper it was probably the gift she opened from Oma and Opa... her very own Big Bird!

Christmas Day

It was a quiet Christmas without either of my brothers and their families home, but we know that one day soon we will get to celebrate Christ's birthday together again! 

We began our morning digging deep into our HUGE stockings lovingly made by Pat Dobson over the years, to find that Santa did indeed know we were in MN!  Moments later Piper was already begging at the M&M drawer, "Peeeeee" please!  We then had the Graham's tradtional blueberry muffins for breakfast, before finally breaking into the presents...

Despite the weather and not so nice roads, Great-Grandpa Jerry and Great-Grandma Joan joined us for a lovely lunch topped off by far too many desserts!

The perfect day was capped off by Hadley's first ice fishing experience with Grandpa and Daddy.  While no fish were caught, many good times were had. Including dunking a foot in the hole and having to go to the bathroom (not number one) on the ice!

Saturday after Christmas

We were joined on Saturday by my Aunt Nancy, cousin Katie and her darling 3 month old baby, Audrey.  It was SO much fun to be together all of us girls. 

The day was topped off by a surprise date that Kyle took me on to see the Cirque Holiday Dream show!  And the girls got to spend the rest of the day with Grandma and Grandpa by themselves (I wonder just how many cookies Grandpa let them have:).

Sunday after Christmas

We awoke on our final day of 'Christmas Vacation' to an icredible frosting of icey snow everywhere.  The view from my mom & dad's lake home was incredible. 

We made a special stop out at Dan and LeAnne's home to see my cousin Angie and her family from Ohio before heading back to Wisconsin.  Hadley and Noah are just a few months apart and really enjoyed playing together.  And Piper thoroughly enjoyed checking out adorable baby GeorgiAnne who is just 3 months old.  If you ask Hadley though, her favorite part about the visit was Tucker the dog!

We arrived home to discover that Santa enjoyed our cookies while we were gone and left a few surprises too.  It was a fun evening opening presents just the 4 of us. 

We are are just SO blessed by the precious time we were able to spend with family while in Minnesota (special thanks to Grandma & Grandpa for hosting us and serving us delicious meals 3-10 times a day! We love you).  We are doing laundry now, repacking, and getting ready to head up North for the New Year in just 3 days!

Christmas Lights

We spent a fun filled evening in Irvine Park last night.  During the Christmas season the park is transformed into a winter wonderland, filled with sparkling lights and beautiful little holiday displays (its hard to believe that we have seen wild animals in the same park over the summer).  It was the absolute perfect winter night for it; 25 degrees and calm little snowflakes sprinkling down on us.  The girls loved trudging through the snow to see what was next - Santa, Rudolph, Baby Jesus.  Hadley made her first snow angel of the season, Piper squealed with delight as we wedged her snowsuited body into a swing, and Hadley got to experience the thrill (or scare!) of going down a slide in the winter with slippery snow pants on (just a few tears).  And after all that, we ended the evening just as I had as a kid... with an ice cream cone (Missed you Michael & Nathan)!  I know, seems too cold for that in the winter, but I think the girls would agree, it was a perfect end to our family weekend. 

Listening

We've had quite a few discussions lately, with Hadley, about whining. After being sick for so long, whining kind of became a habit.  We had to work pretty hard for a few days to get back into a better habit.  Apparently though, she really had been listening to us, as I overheard her telling Benelli, the cat, the other night, "Ba-nell, there is no whining in this house, we only use happy voices!  You won't get any food if you are whining (wah-ning)!"   

I remember my sister-in-law, Kim, telling me when Hadley was born, that her favorite age was 3 because of all the funny things kids say then.  So unscripted and from the heart.  She was exactly right, each day is funnier than the last!  Hadley has apparently been listening to us say other things as well.  She told Piper at lunch yesterday, "You are so stinkin' cute, Pipo!"  She has been telling me "Let's do it, Mom" as we are heading out of the house lately.  And, thanks to her Dad, has been known to tell me, "Nice buns, Mom" as she pats my behind and runs along her way.  For the love!   After splitting a gut when she says some of these hilariously appropriate things, we are reminded over and over again that we had better be SO very careful with what we say! 

On a side note, Christmas came early for the girls this week.  My dear friend, Cyndy (we used to teach together), came for visit and spoiled the girls rotten with lovely gifts!  Hadley has thoroughly enjoyed her new Uno Moo game, and has been running around the house saying, "Uno Muno" ever since.  You can see Cyndy below reading the girls a Christmas book as they snuggled (thumbs and all) right into her.  Its pretty obvious that she is a retired teacher, eh, she looks pretty comfortable reading them a book :). 

Wee

Kyle is in love with our 60 acres of land just outside of town. And he'll think up just about any excuse to go out there... making food plots for the deer with his tractor, planting 15,000 trees (no lie), feeding the deer, picking apples for pies (that I get to make), and hunting, hunting, hunting. But when he suggested going out to make some sledding trails for the girls, I had to admit, it did sound like a good use of his time out there!

We knew that our little scardey cat, Hadley, may not enjoy the sledding, so Kyle brought along a few marshmallow (bribes), and lit a fire at the top of the hill to roast them. It was pretty incredible out there with all of the snow covered trees, fading daylight over the valley, and a warm fire to sit around with our little family.

While Hadley did not enjoy her first trip down the hill with Daddy (it ended in a total face plant in the snow) we did manage to bribe her to try it again with me. She was still certain that she "Didn't like it" after that, but did try sliding down the hill on her own little butt later. Piper on the other hand, thought it was a blast, and kept saying "Wee, go, go, go!"