Just as any other December of any other year, this one was action-packed. We have holiday party, several December birthdays in the family, and of course the preparations for the holidays- decorating, shopping, and wrapping.
Rylie's school does a great job with some Friday night activities- they've had a Halloween party, Christmas party, movie night, etc. For the Christmas party they had a bunch of art and craft activities set up for the kids. I tend to volunteer at these events, since they're in the evening, they're generally the only ones I can do. So I was at the ornament station, but Dan took the girls around to decorate cookies, make scarves, make ornaments and then I took over and we made hand print canvases, magnets, and picture frames. It was such a fun event for them. And Dan got to eat a few bags of popcorn, so he was happy too :)
That night St. Nick came and brought them a few goodies- books, gummie savers, band aids, cards, bubble bath, and a little Lego. They were pretty excited! And later that morning, we headed up to West Bend where they do breakfast with Santa for associates and their families.
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| A little coloring before breakfast- while watching a Charlie Brown Christmas on the projector |
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| Waiting in line to see Santa |
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| Rylie told Santa she wanted kid make-up and Barbies |
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| On the way home we stopped at a tree lot and grabbed our tree and at least got it up with lights on by the end of that night. That was as far as it would get before I decided to sit down with my Tom and Jerry and watch National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. As much as I dislike Winter, I love the coziness of the Christmas season. |
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| The finished product |
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| My little elves |
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We had Grr Mom's birthday dinner the following weekend followed by dessert
at Chris and Leslie's...and some Christmas card pictures. |
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| That Sunday we had Sophie's birthday party- she had a ballet party this year and the girls got to make the cutest little hand print tutus which will be on display in their bedrooms. Such a cute idea. |
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| Showing off their new Frozen slippers from Miss Pattie |
This year we would be spending the Christmas holiday in La Crosse so we celebrated early with Dan's side of the family. It's always so much fun even when it's early. Grr Mom always has some fun games for the kids, dinner, and exchanging of gifts since we wouldn't see them Christmas Day.
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| Making little snowmen out of oreos |
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| New sled! |
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| We always end the evening with Grr Mom reading Twas the Night Before Christmas to the kids |
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The day before Christmas Break, Rylie's class had their classroom holiday party where they played a few games, got to decorate ornaments, put together a snowman made of marshmallows and eat way too many sweets.
It was also pajama day at school. |
Tuesday night the 23rd we left for La Crosse after school/work. And we had a long night of wrapping ahead of us. We had already sent most of the gifts with my parents on prior weekends so that we would actually have room in our vehicle for ourselves :)
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| Christmas Eve Night |
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| Christmas morning! Someone loves her new Elsa Flipeze hat. Rylie was so patient while we waited until after 8:00 for her sister to wake up. Reagan is usually an early riser- 5:30ish- and the one day we wouldn't have minded her getting up early, she slept in! |
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| And Reagan got one too! |
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| Showing her monkey her new crayons. |
Rotary Lights:
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| Kearns Family |
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| Doing what she spends most of her time doing- teaching her class |
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| Frozen serenade |
We're lucky we made it through Christmas because after that, everyone went down hill. Reagan came down with a fever Christmas Eve morning, but was doing ok with continued doses of ibuprofen. The day after Christmas we were able to get together with my dad's side of the family which was great because I only see them a couple times per year and not much around the holidays since my Grandma passed away. So we met for a few drinks. And later that day, Rylie came down with a fever. She also did ok when she was medicated, but we pretty much took it easy other than heading down to rotary lights to walk through the park. Then on Sunday, the day we were heading home, I came down with a fever and ended up with the flu. Once we got home, I went straight to bed where I stayed for the next 4 days. I literally had energy to get out of bed for maybe 10 minutes at a time. I happened to be off work until January 2, but it wasn't exactly what I had in mind for those days. New Year's Eve was very uneventful for us. Thanks to Jerry and Trudy for taking the girls to Discovery World for us and then keeping them overnight. I made it through a movie and that was it for me. No dinner, no champagne. Dan went to out basement and shot pool by himself...poor guy. Not a single picture from that day/night. So while we had a great holiday and are blessed beyond belief, it wasn't a great end to the year.
Although there wasn't much better in store for January. We've had fevers, colds, stomach bugs, more colds running through our house for the entire month!
