Holidays..... just a tad delayed

Due to our crazy life after the holidays it has taken me forever to gather up the stamina to browse through pics and find the time to get some pics posted. I figured I better hurry while my memories were just barely retrievable to write a little something.

Mrs. Carlson (their new teacher) gave them each a bag of reindeer food for Christmas and they made sure to sprinkle it all in one heap in the front yard in hopes of attracting Rudolph and his gang.
They decided that they should sleep in the same bunk bed in case one of them got scared by the hooves and such that they would be landing on the roof that night.

Bryn's favorite gift came from "her brother", which is how she refers to him lately. He picked out a ring at Art Gecko that had two blue stones and said "one stone represents you and one stone represents me." How sweet.

Henry's best surprise was the set of Russian dolls that Miss Jan gave to my mom when she couldn't find them at any stores. I think we all had similar expressions on our faces as we watched how tiny the dolls continued to get.


We spent as much time outside while in Suamico. We snowshoed to our favorite sledding hill in the woods with Grandma.

We also managed to have two Finnish saunas while at my parents. Jay got the fire toasty hot with temps over 150 degrees. The heat inside inspired Henry to run outside and jump in the snow and later for them both to RUN laps around my parents yard in their swimsuits! I could barely stand still on my barefeet long enough to take the pics.

Although you wouldn't guess it from the pics, we did spent a good portion of our vacation with sick kids. The stomach bug that Bryn had earlier came back to get Henry so our time at the cabin was cut short when I had to drive poor Henry back to Madison. Jay and Bryn stayed and played with their cousins, Grandma, Grandpa, Jen , Shawn and the Beckers. Henry and I headed back up as soon as we could but were bummed we missed most of the fun.

Winter gear we hauled up for fun at the cabin!

Sledding onto the frozen lake is even more fun with a crowd!! And no light fixtures were broken this year, added bonus! Alli joined Bryn for a sled down the hill.

Mike, Emma and Bryn enjoying a run.

Nothing like snuggling up with Grandma for some nighttime stories before heading to bed. We all enjoyed the new addition now complete with Grandma's new piano!


Everyone was patient enough to wait for our return back to the cabin to exchange the kiddo gifts so Henry could be a part of the action.


And what would Christmas be without heading down to a local house that has their entire front yard turned into wonderland of lit up Christmas trains, a parachuting Santa, dancing Santas, and my favorite, a Santa whose eyes follow you as you walk by him....

Thanks to both our parents for sharing their Christmas spirit and their homes with our travelling gang of germy kids.