Christmas 2016

Yes Christmas seemed to have zipped by in between basketball and Fred's knee surgery (ACL repair on December 7th). Gavin and Wyatt were in the church Christmas program. Gavin was "Joseph" and did an awesome job memorizing and reciting his line during the show. Wyatt was one of the camels and also did a great job on his line.

Joseph - center stage

Cute Camel in the middle

We all had off of school & work starting on the 23rd, so we headed up to Melrose on the evening of the 22nd to avoid the snow that was threatening on the 23rd. We made a pit stop at the mall to finish up our shopping.

The 23rd we spent at my mom's doing some baking/treat making. Adrea & Tim showed up later in the day and the Rosenbergs (minus a sick Isaac) came over too. Adrea & Alyssa let the boys open a couple presents.

On the 24th we started the morning with brunch and stocking presents at my mom's, then headed to the Middendorfs for lunch and presents. We dressed up for church - the boys all had shirts and ties, but Gavin decided his was choking him, so he didn't wear his. After church we returned to mom's for soup supper and opening the remaining presents.

Pre-Stocking Opening Picture

Post-Church Picture

Middendorf 8

Notable presents: Jacob - a shotgun from Chad & Mary, the basketball he wanted from Grandma Nancy, and an iPhone from Santa.

Gavin - an electric scooter from Corey & Megan, boxing gloves from Grandma and Grandpa Middendorf, and a mini iPad from Santa.

Wyatt - boxing gloves from Grandma and Grandpa Middendorf and a mini iPad from Santa.

Mom and I had plans to go to Grandma Lyd's on Christmas day, but it was raining and freezing, so we decided to stay home. I was hit with a cold, so I hung out at mom's and did puzzles and napped, while the boys went to Middendorfs to play cards and games.

We celebrated Gavin, Jordan & Riley's birthdays on Monday at the hotel in Paynesville. The boys got to swim and we had pizza and cake before heading back to the cities.

Yep, that's the best picture I took.

We opened presents when we got home. All the boys got books, a few clothes, a game, and a water bottle. Then they opened their Santa presents. He was pretty generous this year. Jacob actually cried when he opened his iPhone. The little boys loved their mini-iPads too. It made for a quiet evening.

Gavin surprised by his mini-iPad

Jacob pleased with his phone.

We did our annual lights & DQ outing on the evening of the 27th. Some people were already done with their lights, but we found some fun ones. My mom came down on the 28th and we did another lights tour with her.

Our highlight of break was puppy sitting for some friends. We had Blu, a sweet black lab puppy with us for a week. Other than the puppy, Jacob had a couple basketball practices and we went skating at Centennial Lakes one day. The boys saved up their money to buy an XBox One, so we went out and bought that one day. They were so excited to play with it that night with the babysitter, but the game they bought took about 6 hours to download so that didn't work out for them. They only have Madden 17 and Minecraft on the XBox currently and they fight and whine about the Madden all the time, so I am not a fan of it.

Skating break at Centennial Lakes

Blu - Our house guest for the week.

New Year's Eve we hung out at home and watched Ghostbusters. About 20 minutes in Gavin was asking to turn it off, but we made him tough it out and he found his courage and made it through. We celebrated the new year with sparkling grape juice and then headed to bed immediately.