This is a long post, so we will do our best to paraphrase our holiday activities. We end 2013 with both fond and sad memories. We will start with a bittersweet goodbye to our elf David. Here are his parting adventures at our home....
David wants to be a hockey player too
Ziplining across the living room
He's a nut alright!
Our favorite of the season- waterskiing on our kitchen table!
Not sure who was more teary eyed over his departure letter (our parents or us kids). David bid us a farewell and headed back to the North Pole on Christmas Eve. As he did last year, he allowed us a few hours to touch, hold, and cuddle him since he didn't need magic to fly back home (Santa planned to pick him up in his sleigh).
David promised he would return to our family next holiday season...better yet, he left us his birthday book and a special birthday outfit we will have ready for him on our birthdays. This will be exciting since our birthdays are about half-way through the year. We look forward to seeing him on our special days!
Daddy's extended side of the family celebrates Christmas in the Dells. It is a quick overnight stay, but is action packed. We snuck away to go to a fun restaurant across the parking lot where a train delivered our food. Bennett and Kyra came along and we were memorized!
Gift opening and Santa Claus
Sweet cuddles with Emmett
Waterpark Fun!
On our way back home, we stopped to have cookies and milk with Great-Grandma Klay. She was excited to have all of us visit her together. We sure enjoy our time with Great-Grandma.
We continued the partying at our house- we hosted Christmas for Daddy's siblings and Grammy due to demanding work schedules this year over Christmas. We had a yummy lunch and what do you know... more presents!
We had this special wooden sign made for Grammy's 4 season porch
Cooper and I received "boogie boards" which are not the ocean riding kind, but a fun drawing/writing tablet. Cooper took it upon himself to turn into Santa, by carrying the trash over his shoulder, and writing down who was on the naughty and nice list (most of us made the naughty list, not him of course).
Mommy, Auntie Erin and Auntie Jill received similar hats from Grammy. They couldn't resist a sisters-in-law photo. They enjoy being together so much!
Christmas Eve was...QUIET. It was just our family during the day. We went to early church for communion, carols and worship. Mommy propped her camera on a ladder for our annual family photo--- not too bad. That night, we had Grammy over for a fancy prime rib dinner in our seldomly used formal dining room.
Bunch of clowns
Ugh, Mommy says we are growing way too fast :(
Our little charmer
We gave our parents a Christmas surprise by not waking up at 5:45 as usual, we slept until 7:00 on Christmas morning! Once we were up, it was a tornado in our house. Stockings, toys galore, and a fun breakfast.
This stinker got the firefighter outfit he had a meltdown over at Farm and Fleet. Santa should have known better than to reward that behavior!?!?
Snowboards!
I asked Santa for a rocket and I got one. It shoots 50 feet in the air which clearly means it is an outdoor toy.
Some of Cooper's favorite toys were toy soldiers (how simple, but fun), snowshoes (we both got these), a bottle of Coca Cola (major hit), new spinbrushes, movies, books, dinosaurs, ......
I am majorly intrigued by outerspace right now. I was beyond excited about receiving my own telescope. I look outside my window every night and report my sightings (mostly clouds so far).
Liberty received a new squeaky duck and her favorite dog treats- spoiled old girl :)
Mommy made us a Pinterest inspired breakfast
Our parents spoiled each other- Daddy received new hockey skates and Mommy received a cricut machine for scrapbooking (FINALLY, YAY!)
We headed to the cities for Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's house. We were thinking of Jimmy this day as he was admitted to Children's Hospital for 2 days with RSV and pneumonia. Our little buddy is recovering at home, but we sure missed celebrating with them this year!
We received some awesome gifts- I got a remote control snowmobile and Cooper received Dusty the Crophopper airplane. We had many other fun gifts... such an amazing blessing to have all of these unnecessary but exciting toys to play with. Mommy now threatens to give them to underprivileged children when we fight over them (and I do not dare second guess that threat!)
We gave Grandma and Grandpa our annual grandchildren's photo calendar. It is a labor of love, but something we enjoy making for them each year.
Great-Grandma Woody made all of the boys matching vests. She still knits oodles of sweaters, scarves, and special gifts for all of us. We appreciate her talents- don't we look handsome?!?!
Over Christmas break, we found time to go ice fishing. It was such a beautiful winter day and we quickly took advantage of it!
Cooper mostly liked to scoop the slush and toss it all over the place
I was a bit more patient and tried to catch a "keeper" in my fishing hole. No luck this time.
And Mommy was fishing her style... tip-up doing the work while lounging in the sun with a cold drink in her hand. She might get used to this ice fishing thing.
As we waited for fish to bite, we made ourselves useful on the lake. We took laps in the deep, deep snow on our snowmobiles.
We had hockey this weekend. We are convinced that Cooper only plays so he can watch and dream of doing this someday.
Daddy had his alumni hockey game on Saturday. We went to watch, along with Grammy and Emmett. Uncle Matt also played, so we loudly cheered them on while slurping on slushies. Whatever works for keeping our attention, right?!?!
The old farts
We received our hockey pictures and we apologize, our scanner seems to be on its last leg these days. Mommy appreciates our cute smiles as she knows sooner than later, we will have our tough guy faces on.
Cooper's preschool pictures also came home a week ago. He looks so handsome and big!
Our other fun holiday event took place this morning at Chaos waterpark. We met up with friends for 4 hours of waterpark excitement. We all went home waterlogged and happy :) It was a perfect place to go on a -20 degree day, brrrrrrr!
As much as we didn't want to, we had to say farewell to our sweetest and one of the most amazing/inspiring people in our lives... auntie Lynda. She passed away on Thursday, December 19th at the age of 65. Auntie Lynda was like Mommy's second Mom and another Grandma to Cooper and me. We loved her dearly. She passed suddenly after complications from heart stents (she had a pulmonary embolism). Her passing has brought us great sadness, especially so close to the holidays. We will never forget her beautiful smile, her cute giggle, her over-the-top positive attitude, her desire to help others, and her loving support and encouragement.
As we grieve, we are reminded of her love in simple gestures. We received this special "pay it forward" gift the day after she passed as we waited in line at the carwash. A war vet (based on the license plates) left us this note and cash as we pulled up to the wash code box. This is something Auntie Lynda would do- she even threatened her kids that she would bring homeless people to their Thanksgiving table... that's our Lynda.
The day of her funeral was unbearably sad. Our parents went to the funeral without Cooper/I- they knew the pain and sadness would be too much for us to understand. Mommy returned that evening with a rose that was clearly frozen and dead. She removed it from the top of Lynda's casket (this is something our family strangely does, maybe it is our own tradition, maybe not). Anyhow, she removed a coral colored rose as it reminded her of all of their fun times together on Captiva Island (26 years). After a 2 hour drive, she returned home with this rose, couldn't throw it in the garbage, so she put it in a drinking glass. On Christmas day, the rose was open, full and beautiful. We know it was Auntie Lynda wishing us a Merry Christmas and reminding us that her love will always be in our hearts forever. We bid 2013 farewell and wish our family and yours a happy, healthy and blessed year ahead.
