Enjoying the Season

These pictures are from Nov 27-Dec 7, 2016.

We loved having our Christmas tree up with a big open space in the room! All season long, we spent a lot of time playing games, reading and just sitting in here with our tree and each other.

We had a small gathering at our house to drink some Wassail and sing Christmas songs. Doing this on a smaller scale than in the past went really well. My main reason was so that Tanner wouldn't be so overwhelmed, as I've noticed he gets very worked up when we have lots of people over. It sure made a big difference for him. It also was fun this way because it gave everyone a chance to pick a song, sing it without having tons of talking over the singing, and there was some time to visit. Set up and clean up was way easier, too.

Jeremy made the Wassail, and learned that a small group can still drink a lot of Wassail. He had to bring out a second batch!

On Tuesdays this semester, I had a 1.5 hour gap between my morning and afternoon classes that I teach. One day, I was organized enough to make this small window of time a fun family outing. I picked Jeremy up from work, got the boys from Daycare, and we all walked across the street to Grinders, a little sandwich shop. It was the perfect family outing. I'm really glad we did it!

Weather wise, November was a weird month. We were in the 60's and 70's at the beginning of the month and negative teens and twenties at the end of the month. Luckily, the dome was up in time for the cold. I have found that taking the boys to walk around the dome for 15-20 minutes after school makes a positive difference in our evenings at home.

I hosted a playgroup service project at church where we made gift bags for the homeless. The moms and church members contributed items for the bags and then we let the kids fill the bags up. Most of the kids really liked it and worked hard. At the beginning, I explained to the kiddos what we were doing and who we would be giving them to, but a few of them, including Dallin, thought the bags were for them, hee hee. Oh well. We made about 25 bags!
The idea is that we keep a few of the bags in our car, and when we encounter a homeless person on the streets, we can give them one of the bags. Our family has been doing this for about a year now, and Tanner loves it when we find someone to give the bags to. 

On Sat, Dec 3, we were able to attend the Wonder of the Nativity in Rochester at one of our church buildings (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). This was our 3rd year attending the event, and we met up with the Hanson family. Dallin didn't seem to remember much from last year, so it was really fun to watch him enjoy everything as if for the first time. 

Dallin loved his treat.

Tanner and Dallin watched the live nativity with lots of curiosity. Dallin and I stuck around for the flute choir performance while Tanner and Jeremy looked at the nativity displays.

Dallin loved the nativity displays! He wanted to touch every baby Jesus.

I made sure to plan lots of time for us to enjoy the children's room because last year it all felt too rushed. The boys LOVED this room, and spent about an hour in here. We did a craft, played puzzles, and dress-ups, all related to Christ's birth!

The three musketeers!

After the Nativity event, we went out to eat with the Hansons to Hu Hut. This is me and Tiffany!

The next day it snowed, so after church the boys enjoyed playing outside! I'm so glad they did because the weather got down to negative 20's for about a week, it was really depressing.

But we kept warm and cozy inside!

 On Dec 7, we enjoyed a great Christmas party for the kiddos at Sheila's house. Thanks to Sheila for including us! 

Tanner loved the crafts. 

 Dallin loved all the action figure toys, lol.

 Decorating cookies was a highlight, too!

Dallin's fingers are so long!

Yummy creations! Tanner was really proud of his gingerbread man.

The Holidays Begin!

Our holiday celebrations began in mid-November! Auntie Desha came to Minneapolis for a weekend event, so the boys and I drove up on Friday Nov 18 to spend the day with Desha and her friend. We went to the Mall of America where she helped me bra shop while the boys went to play with Auntie's friend around the mall. Then we had a yummy lunch and set off to the Science Museum in St Paul. We spent several hours there and had lots of fun. Then we went to eat dinner at a super delicious and swanky Greek Restaurant. Desha and I ate octopus legs! Yum! We waited out a snow storm with some long sister talks, and my late drive back home went well because the storm had passed. It was a long and fun day. Tanner and Dallin were so happy to be with their Auntie!!!

Here's a random fun painting that Dallin did one morning sometime this Fall. I think it's a portrait of Daddy. 

The day after we saw Desha, we got to enjoy a special evening at the Hormel Historic Home called Soup and Santa. I am on the committee that helped plan the family event. It included a soup dinner, several crafts, a tour of the home in all its beautiful holiday decor, a cute performance called Selfish Elfish, and a chance to visit with Santa Clause. The event sold out several days beforehand (200 tickets). But even better was seeing how much my boys loved all of it. Here we are watching the funny Elf performance. 

Doing the crafts at the dinner table.

We got to see Santa after most of the crowd had left. This was especially nice for Tanner so he could enjoy it without all the commotion of the crowds.

Dallin liked standing and looking at Santa while they talked. The conversations were short and simple.

Then, we took our tour of the home. The boys liked seeing Santa, but they absolutely LOVED seeing the historic home. We visit here often for various classes and events. My boys have the place memorized and know where everything is. But this evening was the big debut for the holiday decorations, and it was a complete novelty for my kids. They were absolutely enamored, you would have thought they were entering DisneyLand! 

There were Christmas trees in every room and hallway. As we entered each room, Dallin would exclaim, "ANOTHER Christmas chwee!?!" The boys noticed many details like manger scenes in small spaces, the holly on the headboards of the beds and wreaths in the windows. My three year old even noticed the poinsettias in vases that usually have other flowers. 

On the way down the stairs, I noticed a calm warmth had filled the home, perhaps because we were the last ones there. The Christmas lights glimmered from several trees, making the wooden wains coating shimmer. I smelled cinnamon. The stairs creaked a little, as if they were telling stories of Christmases past. Then my five year old boy said what I was thinking, "This place feels just like Christmas Eve. Can we sleep here and stay here forever?" 

Seeing my kids so excited about the decorations in this home made my heart brim with joy! I've tried to instill in them a love of history and an appreciation for the Hormel family's legacy. This home has become very special to me, and it was rewarding to see in my children's eyes that it is also special to them.

A few days later it was Thanksgiving Day! Tanner likes to open the drapes this way because it looks special.

We slept in and relaxed all day. No guests, no parties, just us with lots of peace and quiet. This year, that is exactly what our little family needed.

Jeremy bought us a fake tree the day before. We spent a long time decorating it on Thanksgiving day. The boys had a ton of fun doing this.

Here's a cute turkey project Tanner made at school.

Here is our yummy spread, which included autumn casserole, bean casserole, and chicken. I promise that the chicken looked a lot like a turkey.  We didn't want to got through all the hassle of a real turkey this year. 

The next day, we headed up to the cities to try playing at an indoor park called Edinborough Park.

We ate a picnic lunch inside the park.

Then we enjoyed all the fun! They have a giant gym with basketball, bikes, hula hoops, and a bounce house.

And this. A HUGE play place. 5+ stories tall. At least 10 different slides, tons of tunnels, monkey bars, jumping contraptions, bridges, ropes, etc.

It was too crazy to take pictures while we were inside the thing, but it was fun! And big, and loud and crazy. When things got too overwhelming, we would come back to the gym area. The boys got tons of wiggles out, and me and Jeremy enjoyed the workout we got, too.

We continued putting up Christmas decorations through out the weekend. Dallin put these stockings on and said "look at my socks!" I'm not sure of he really thought they were socks or if he knew they were stockings. Either way, he succeeded at making us laugh. And then Tanner wanted to try too! 

On Saturday evening, we went to our first hockey game of the season! Tanner wanted to wear his cheetah costume because it's super warm and comfortable and because it's similar colors to our town's team. We first sat down next to a group that had cowbells. That got really annoying, especially for Tanners ears, so we moved to the other side of the arena and had a great time. Tanner and Dallin are so excited that hockey season is here!