Christmas 2014

Just like that we are already a week past Christmas. Of course our Christmas celebrations were over a 5 day period so it's no wonder it still feels like we're all experiencing a little bit (some more than others) of a Christmas hangover. Whew, so much socializing, driving, missed hours of sleep and a new pile of stuff to try to organize in a space already overrun with stuff!

We started out at the white farm on Christmas Eve day. Chicken wild rice soup, etc for lunch followed by opening presents and then church. The kids learned quickly that I will always make them take a picture before presents ;) During church Levi could not stop talking. "He said Jesus/manger/shepards in the field" or "Is that girl Mary?" At least he was paying attention?!

Aunt Tracy made the boys quilts. The back of Charlie's looks like Bucky's sails. No idea how she did it, but it looks like a lot of work.



We had burgers for supper at home and then they opened their presents from mom & dad. Charlie got new DVD players for the car & Levi got a balance bike. Nora got a book. The boys also bought each other something from the dollar store - Levi got a flashlight & Charlie got a jump rope.Then it was time to get ready for bed, FINALLY put the star on the advent calendar and leave cookies for Santa.

Santa decided to assemble the tractor because he didn't think it looked that hard and he didn't want to have to try to hide a box that Charlie would likely find anyways. 1.5 hours later and Santa was saying some bad words. Nora was still up when he stopped by so she went for a little joy ride, too. Probably the only time she'll get to drive.

The boys were pretty excited about their tractor. But I would say they were just as excited for their watch (Charlie) and paint dobbers (Levi) that Santa left in their stockings along with new gloves.

Moving right along, Christmas morning was spent packing up and trying to get on the road. We spent the afternoon at Kathy's. So much food, so many kids (Charlie is the oldest great grand child of 9!), so loud and so much fun. Since 7/9 great grandkids are boys, there were a lot of tractors & equipment by the time the presents were all opened. Every single time Levi ran by me he had a handful of cookies and/or candy and later on in the day I caught him looting the stockings that were full of candy by the stairs. The crowd filtered out around chore time but we ended up staying and hanging out until almost 8pm so it late before we got down to the red farm. 

We had Friday "off" from Christmas but we stayed busy visiting friends and making sure everyone got some much needed nap time in. Saturday we celebrated at mom & dads. Charlie FINALLY got the Big Book of Big Tractors book he has been lusting over since he first saw it. I had a copy in my inventory from a show I did in December and when he visited, he kept taking if off of the table because he did not want me to sell it. So he is very happy to have his own copy!

A round baler for Levi &  a bale wrapper for Charlie. 

My Grandma K really enjoyed doing needlepoint and when she was in the nursing home, she stitched a bunch of quilt blocks befoe she died. My mom saved them all and since there aren't enough for everyone to have a quilt, she matched up some of the nicer ones and had them framed. I love them - I was pregnant with Charlie when her & Grandpa died and I can't help but think of how head over heals they would be for these kiddos :)

We wrapped up Christmas on Sunday at Grandpa & Grandma E's. After celebrating Christmas 3 times, we finally got this group of cousins in a relatively good mood for a picture.

Since we were already bringing so much stuff with us, I threw in Great Grandma's baby gown so that we could get a picture of Nora and her. As I was packing stuff I realized I pack the boys stuff to get dirty and I pack Nora stuff to play dress up. haha.

The party was still going strong but we had to head out since we had a 3 hour drive. They didn't sleep much on the way home but Nora traveled great once again. We got everyone to bed when we got home (except for little miss night owl of course) & left the toys in the car to be dealt with another day. Whew!!!