Holiday Hangover

After all the Christmas excitement and then working the past two days, this is kind of how I feel too...

I'm looking forward to catching up on sleep this weekend, and trying to find a place for all this stuff!

Santa Came!

After our Iowa trip and a couple of days snuggled together at home, we were more than ready for Santa to make his visit. Lucy was excited, but not quite to the point of waking up too early, for which we were very thankful! I think we were all up before she was, but we were still up and at 'em by around 7:30am. Of course we had to check to make sure Santa ate his cookies...

The first thing she spotted was the Tonka dump truck, because it wasn't wrapped. Apparently she found this detail fascinating, because she keeps talking about how "Santa didn't wrap it." Daddy thought maybe it should be his, since there was no name on it. :)

We knew she would love the truck, and she wasted no time putting it to good use, unwrapping gifts and loading them in, and then dumping everything into one big pile. She got lots of great gifts from Santa, Mom and Dad, and Big Brother.

When Husband asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I said I just wanted someone to fill my stocking, since for years I'd been filling everyone else's (with Santa's help, of course). He asked Brandon to help, and through some overzealous shopping and a little miscommunication about who was doing what, I ended up with a stocking and a large bag full of all this...each item individually wrapped, I might add!

We had a busy morning but there was no time to rest, because it was time to go the Laabs Christmas! It was a day filled with laughter and love, as usual. 

We feel so grateful and blessed to have been together and surrounded by our extended families this holiday season. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

A pretty quiet Christmas Eve around here. We went to church at 5:00PM, and as Lucy said, "the whole family is here!" Brandon was working but was able to join us about 10 minutes into the service. She was elated that her big brother was there, and so was I. After church we had a good solid family meal at Perkins. :)

Wishing you all a peaceful, contemplative Christmas Eve.

Iowa Christmas

We had a bit of an early Christmas with my family, which also coincided with the Big Overmohle Christmas. It was a great time and as always, the kids were spoiled by Grandma and Grandpa and had lots of fun playing together. I treasure this time with my family, and it's wonderful to see Lucy grow her relationships with her cousins and her grandparents!

It was a "Frozen" kind of Christmas for Lucy!

The kids are always there to help Grandma and Grandpa open gifts!

Uncle Josh!

The customary trip to Santa's Castle.

Giving Grandma some moral support before her church choir performance.

Snowman pancake at Lakeshore Cafe.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

We've had all kinds of Christmas happening around here...

The tree came out the day after Thanksgiving, and it didn't take long for the rest of it to come out, too. I had a bit of a hard time locating our Elf on the Shelf, Red...the box was where it belonged, but no elf inside. He apparently made an escape. Eventually he was found (in my closet?) and we have fun looking to see the new place he lands each morning. Although sometimes he's "tired," or there's "bad weather"...so he stays in the same place. :)

Thursday night was Lucy's holiday program at preschool. Short and sweet, and full of little angels.

Today we had a couple more great Christmas traditions to keep us in the holiday spirit. First, Breakfast with Santa at Lucy's preschool. This year, she told Santa she wants Legos and new orange tracks (for her Hot Wheels set). She did great talking to him, and we had a fun time catching up with some of her classmates who have moved on to kindergarten.

Right after Santa, we headed over to our church for the Advent Fair. Lucy got to decorate cookies and have them baked right there, sing Christmas carols, decorate cards, make an Advent book, and participate in a live Nativity scene.

It's Christmas all over the place!