Christmas in the cities

 Christmas day was a little different this year.  The kids and Troy stayed at Susie's but I went up to have dinner nd spend the night with my mom.  I missed Thanksgiving with her, so I wanted to be there for one holiday. We both enjoyed our respective evenings.  Susie had her usual fare of tenderloin and crabcakes, and mom and I had chinese food.  We watched a Christmas movie and chatted a lot.  They played some trivia, ping pong and the kids opened gifts.

I went aback down to Susie's the next day.  We did a little family outing to the Mall of America.  Teresa found a good deal on a sweater at American Eagle.  Timothy enjoyed a lunch aat Shake Shack--we seem to be going there a lot on our travels...London, NYC, MN!  And the mall is always fun to see with decorations.

On Friday I took Teresa and FIona shopping.  It was their present from Krista.  Unfortunately, she had to stay home with two sick boys.  But the girls and I had fun.  Teresa got some Paris themed things and a sweater.  Fiona found some cute sweaters at Kohl's and American Eagle.

On Saturday we celebrated with the whole gang.  The little boys were recovered enough to come. There were some fun times playing holiday trivia, chatting, and having meals together.  The grandkids played a game of life together.  And we sang our carols and did our candle ceremony.  It was a lovely day together with family!

Christmas in Iowa

Christmas Eve was church and a movie as usual.  We were able to go to the 4pm service as Timothy did not have to work.  We helped out in the tech booth during the service.  Our dinner was ham, lefse and tater tots...made everyone happy!  And as is tradtion dessert with a movie.  This year we watched Muppet's Christmas Carol.  The tide has change in that the kids stay up later then the parents, so gifts are brought out in the morning not the evening anymore.

The kids stay up later, but they also sleep in later.  I was able to go for a Christmas run before the kids were up.  Teresa was up at 9am and she, Troy and I had some breakfast.  We woke Timothy up at 10am.  We started out with some stocking stuffers.  Then we stopped for a Advent devotion.  Then it was time for the main gifts.  We all got some nice things.  

Troy always likes to do a scavenger hunt for the kids, and he included me this year!  We found our last clue that said we had been grinched and needed to visit another house (Sophie's) to get our gifts.  We all rolled our eyes and looked to Troy to drive over there for us!  But we all hoped in the van and trekked to the Welter's and checked their mailbox.  (Troy preapproved it with Amy).  We all had gift cards waiting for us.

Soon enough I was packing up and getting ready to head to the cities.  We were on the road by noon ready to celebrate Christmas with our extended family!