Warning--lots of pictures to come!
We had such a fun holiday celebrating with our family in various ways, I just had to add lots of pictures to capture a bit of it all. We began the celebration with a pre-Christmas trip to visit my aunt.The kids had fun seeing all of her Christmas decorations and lights. And they opend new sleeping bags which were perfect for a sleep over at her house.
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| Teresa reading to Aunt Mary. (And yes, I do mean Teresa is the one telling the story!) |
We opted to stay home for Christmas eve and part of Christmas day. We are used to have our own little family for this time and selfishly wanted to keep it that way. Christmas was sort of a normal day. We drove back from my aunt's, Timothy played with a friend, I organized for future travels. The kids were entertained for a good hour as they watched JibJab cards on the computer. I even remembered to take a photo af all of us spiffed up for church. It was a nice church service and a bonus to have Troy with us.
On Christmas morning the kids got to open their stocking gifts right after waking up. Then it was breakfast together and taking time for our final advent candle lighting. All of advent we have been creating a picture of the nativity after hearing a Bible reading each night.
Around lunch time we packed up and headed to the cities to see Troy's mom and sister. We were a bit surprised by some snow on the drive which made for a long journey. We were very happy to arrive and have wonderful dinner and another round of gift opening.
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| Troy enjoying time with his mom. |
We stayed a few nights with Troy's sister Susan--and spent some of Thursday visiting the mall of America so Teresa could see the Sharks at the acquarium! And Susan happend to have some ride passes which were much appreciated by the kids! We met up with Susan and Grandma Judy for lunch.
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| Family pic at the Mall of America. |
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| Teresa checking out the sharks. We even got to see the shark feeding. |
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| The kids and Troy enjoy the bus ride. A favorite ride for all! |
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| After lunch picture with Grandma Judy. |
Next on our journey of celebrations was a stop at my parent's home. We had the annual get together with my parents and brothers and their families, which was as fun as usual. The kids love to play with their cousins. And warm temperatures meant some good outdoor fun and snowman building. We had nice meals and fun seeing everyone open gifts.
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| The cousins! |
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| Timothy and Broder smashing a snowman. |
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| The snowman Teresa and Troy helped build. |
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| One of Teresa's favorite gifts--stuffed humpback whale. |
The kids put on their Christmas program once again. It was adorable of course. Teresa graduated from sheep to shepherd this year and had her kitty and whale play the sheep.
All in all, our time with all our family was wonderful. It is these relationships that mean so much to us. We are always thankful for the time we have together.
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| Me and my boy smiling for a picture. |
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Grandma Rebecca and Teresa enjoying time together.
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We cut our vacation short by one day to avoid some snow. We ended up driving in snow anyway, but thankfully the journey was safe. And we had a great family day on New Year's day. We are grateful for wonderful memories made!
