Christmas

It was wonderful having David home all day on Christmas Eve this year.  With Mother Nature's cooperation, the kids were able to create our second annual Christmas snow fort with the help of their Dad.  The fort you see below quickly solidified as Canadian winds swept across Minnesota followed by more snow which allowed this band of builders to turn the fort into an igloo in January.  Pretty cool!

 

Keeping with our family tradition, each of us shared a talent on Christmas Eve after reading the Christmas story in Luke 2.  Mary started us off by singing "Picture a Christmas" (her favorite Christmas song), accompanied by Mom.

 Jacob on viola, Charlotte playing the recorder, Laurel at the piano, and Mary singing "Jolly Old Saint Nicholas."

Laurel & Jacob share more musical talents by playing "Away In A Manger" & "Up on the Housetops" respectively.

 Charlotte, Mary, and Laurel all share a dance they choreographed themselves.

Jacob decided to share his 'hidden' talent - most often employed when Mom isn't looking to avoid hearing "GET DOWN!"

And Dad can always come up with some fun trick to teach us thanks to YouTube :).

Everyone made Santa's "nice" list this year, so it was fun to see what he left Christmas morning.  More American Girl gear (ski equipment) for Charlotte's Chrissa; pillow pets for Mary and Laurel, and Bop-It for Jacob.

With Dad home from work, we made the most of our time between Christmas and New Years.  Sunday night found us with the extended family enjoying another big Christmas dinner.  Monday, we hit the slopes for some massively fun tubing (i.e. sliding down the hill with 14-16 family members every time)!  Tuesday our immediate family tried rollerskating.  As one who thought herself quite adept on skates as a teenager, it turned out to be one of the scariest experiences of my life.  I, all of a sudden, seemed so tall and had such a real fear of falling and breaking a bone.  So, while I was a bit cautious, all of the kids kept at it until they had mastered skating and David glided onto the rink like he was 17 again.  Mary who had never been on skates before ended up winning the limbo mostly because of her tiny frame and ability to actually move forward on the skates while crouching.  Wednesday found us yet again in the snow - this time sledding.  Thursday we saw "Tangled."  And Friday David took the kids swimming while I took a nap at home.  Isn't he a great husband!  Friday night we joined our friends for a New Year Eve's party.  And Saturday we recovered.  All in all, a truly wonderful holiday!