Christmas Wrap Up

My blogs have been few and far between lately - the holidays have had us running all over the place! We have been incredibly busy going here and there and are now looking forward to a relaxing New Year's Day. Here is a wrap up:

Our first Christmas Celebration was with Mike's Grandma Lee. She lives in Rochester, but life makes it difficult for us to get together often. Madison rarely sees Grandma Lee, but she remembers her each time she sees her and absolutely adores her.

Next, we celebrated Christmas with the Tigue Family. Madison received a pretty church coat and hat from Grandma and Grandpa. Anytime she opened a package with clothes in it, she had to try them on right away. She adores this coat and has to wear it everywhere! So much for keeping it nice for church.

After gift opening, we took the kids sledding at bridge park. It's been a long time since I have gone sledding and it was so much fun! Madison, Mason, and Riley all enjoyed going down the hill. This is the first Christmas in recent memory that we have had enough snow to go sledding!

After, Uncle Trevor tried to take Madison on the snowmobile, but she would have none of it! Remember, she is still learning to simply tolerate the snow! Mason and Riley, however, loved riding the snowmobile around the house.

Saturday evening, we had Grandma Muldoon's annual Legion Christmas Party. I always laugh about our extended family Christmas being in a bar. It's the only place big enough to hold all of us. I love the Christmas party because it is the only time out of the year that the entire family is together. It is so much fun to see how all of my cousin's kids are growing and there is always a new baby to be held. My Grandma puts a lot of work into the party by preparing the main dish and baking dozens and dozens of bars. She has been sick recently, so my hat is off to her and the wonderful party that was enjoyed by all. My favorite part of the night is when the great grandkids open their gifts from Great Grandma. She always buys them a new pair of warm winter pajamas. All of the kids will immediately take off their nice dress clothes to put on their new jammies. This is our attempt at a picture of all the great grandchildren with Grandma - as you can see, a few are escaping including mine!

Sunday we were delayed by a storm. We tried to go back to Rochester around 3pm but the snow made travel nearly impossible. It took us an hour to get to Albertville (yea, that's about 5 miles!) So, we turned around and waited at Mom and Dad's for the road conditions to improve. We were finally able to leave around 10 pm and made it home at 1am. We're not talking about the Packer game that day. What a disaster!

On Christmas Eve, we attend church services and then hosted Mike's family for our Christmas celebration. We had a simple meal of Minnesota Wild Rice Soup, Meatballs, and various cookies and other snacks. Mike's mom brought a delicious chocolate chip torte for desert! Madison, again tried on all her clothes as she opened the gifts. Mike loves his new Brett Favre jersey - and I received a new necklace. (You're not breaking this one Madison!)

Madison was not quite sure what to think of her gifts from Santa Claus. I'm not sure she gets the whole Santa Claus thing just yet. She was exicted to play with her new kitchen, if you can't tell from the smile on her face. I think, however, the sudden appearance of new toys when she woke up was a bit overwhelming for her.

Mike enjoyed the new 18-mile two way radios. Now when we are camping, we can use the radio's to call him in from the boat since the cell phones usually don't work on the lake. He also got a new weather radio that we can use on the boat. (The old one fell in the lake a few times!) I am enjoying my new iPod Nano (3rd generation, it is so sweet!) and have been reading Deanna Favre's book, Don't Bet Against Me.

Christmas Day was spent with Mike's Grandma Dubbels and the extended family. Again, it was a nice relaxing day! Madison enjoyed playing with cousin Kathy and we all enjoyed the meal that Grandma Shirley made!

So - that is our Christmas wrap up. Today, I spent a lot of time getting the gifts put away. Tomorrow the Holiday decorations will come down and we will begin focusing on goals for 2008!