Christmas Vacation

We had a lot of fun this vacation . . . lots of lazy mornings sleeping in and playing, enjoying the snow, and doing some special things.  Here's a peek:

On the last day of school before break, Kalona Elementary had grandparents day!  I snagged this picture off of B's PK blogsite of Braden and Grandma Jane making a candy cane reindeer.  

We got our first round of snow on Friday and another round on Saturday night - and woke up Sunday to a fresh layer of white!

Braden was SO excited to get to play in the snow now that his cast is off!

This was Elise's first real play time in the snow - she was anxious to help shovel ;)

We even got out the sleds and went on a Sunday morning sled ride before the streets were melted.

On Tuesday Braden and I went on a Mommy-Son date to see the movie Frozen.  B loved it.  When it was over he said, That was awesome!

 The kiddos enjoyed drawing on their new easel

On Monday we went to the Children's Museum with Addie and Aidan. It was E's first visit - and she had a lot of fun.

Celebrating

It's always such a whirlwind of fun at Christmastime - I love family gatherings, but it all goes by sooooo fast!  (And somehow so has our entire vacation - back to school tomorrow)  :( Before heading back,  I wanted to update the ol' blog so that I don't start the new year behind.  So here's a marathon post to catch up.

Our celebrations began with the Miller (and Boese) family gathering on Christmas Eve.  We hosted this one, which was fun! We missed Allie, who was under the weather with the flu.  :(

Braden was very excited to open his first gifts, and Elise quickly joined in the fun too.

Elise got a baby bed from Grandma Jane that was once Grandma's (and mommy's).

She knew just what to do with it and put her new baby right in!

 Grandma Jane also made a doll quilt for Elise (out of scrap fabric from E's own baby quilt) to wrap her baby in. It is adorable!

 New Jammies for Grandma!

Traditional Christmas Eve soup supper

After supper Grandpa and Elise had a little tea party. :)

Christmas morning Elise woke up and found that Santa had come!

After waiting for a while, she went and woke up Braden

Billy made a YUMMY breakfast pizza for Christmas morning.

Our little artists and their new easel :)

The kids are coloring and Billy is playing with B's new remote control car :)

We gathered with the Miller (extended family) gang for lunch at East Union.  It's crazy to think that there are now so many of us that it's a challenge to gather in a home. (And next year we'll have TWO more family members!) :)

We revived the traditional singing of The 12 Days of Christmas this year!

We circled up for gift opening, and Miss Elise plopped down on a chair all by herself like the big kids did.  We were amazed that she sat patiently (sleepily??) on her chair the whole time waiting for about 20 people to open gifts before it was her turn.

She didn't move an inch! ;)

Lance (just out of the pic to the right) sat in the lucky spot and got to open first . . . and we worked our way around the circle.  Poor Braden was very anxious and waited for a looooong time.

B kept looking at his gift wistfully . . .

Finally his turn arrived!

 And eventually  it was Elise's turn too!

We wrapped up the festivities with the Hartsock family celebration on Saturday.  The kiddos knew just what to do with presents by this point!

Alex and Addie helping Elise "feed" her new baby alive doll. ;)

We remembered to take a "cousins by the tree" picture this year

We are so very blessed to have our families nearby and to have been able to spend time with all of them this holiday season.  It was a very Merry Christmas, indeed!