Christmas

We made plans for Santa to stop by on Christmas Eve Eve. Charlie made reindeer food at school so him & Levi  spent some time sprinkling it out in the yard. The forgot all about the cookies for Santa though. I was mostly sad about having to let go of having them wear matching jammies. Levi refuses to wear long sleeves or pants to bed (they move too much) so I decided not to waste money on clothes that would just turn into a fight :)

On Christmas Eve morning they opened up their stuff from Santa and from us. Charlie's "big gift" was remote control bumper cars. Levi got a JD harvesting set including a combine with 2 heads and a tractor w/ grain cart. Nora's (only) present was a set of sippy cups with straws. We did get her a new baby but then she received the exact same one the day before at her daycare party. She didn't complain much though. 

Playing in her favorite place with her new baby.

We took our time getting organized, had a quick lunch and headed for the red farm. Oh, I did make Erik go to the post office to see if a package with Nora's tights were there. The shipping never updated online and I didn't want to wait for the mailman to see if they would come. The perks of small town living! They weren't there, but the UPS man hadn't stopped yet but Erik called later and still nothing. Ugh (and as of a week later they still haven't shown up!). Anyways, as we were driving south I called the Mankato store and they had them so we stopped and CHRISTMAS WAS SAVED. Having to stop an hour into our drive did cut the naps pretty short but it had to be done ;)

We fed everyone supper and then went to church with grandma, molly & the kids. 6:30 church isn't a great time for dairy farmers so the rest of the guys stayed back. Between the 5 kids they were a circus.The highlight was Levi saying during communion (twice), "Haiden, did you know grandma got run over by a reindeer?!? That is soooooo creepy!" Everyone around us busted up laughing. Oh, child. Levi was excited to sing away in a manger and to hold the candle. Quick pic of the cousins afterwards because I didn't think I'd convince them to get all fancied up again. We put the kids to bed and then went up to Ryan & Molly's for a quick supper while Uncle T stayed with them.




Christmas day we went to my grandpa & grandma's. We had a blast as always. Nora loves these cupcake shape sorters. We have the eggs at ECFE & they are one of our most played with toys. So when we saw these as a deal of the day on Amazon, we snagged one for the class and one for at home!

I originally ordered the car carrier for other kids, but Levi announced he NEEDED it and then repeatedly put it on his wish list. So I did a little gift rearranging and he got this from great grandpa & Grandma. He was pretty excited!

Battleship: He has a tough time doing it himself because he gets a little mixed up and it's hard to play if only 1 adult is around. Both boys also got harmonicas to play with great grandpa. They are pretty crappy (I thought Melissa & Doug would be decent?) but the benefit is that they don't make much noise so they're not overly obnoxious. (My grandparents give me $ to buy the kids' gifts so I'm responsible for these!)

My grandma wanted to see Nora in this dress that she bought for me in Germany, circa 1984. Nora participated in a lengthy photoshoot sitting on this little bench and she loved being the center of attention.

Red sweater also something of mine and from Germany.

The kids partied hard, fell asleep on the way back to grandmas and were sleeping by 6:45pm. It was great. Until the boys were up at 4:45 the next morning...

Day after Christmas @ mom and dad's

One of his favorite presents along with the barn & more little cows. He sets up his "parlor" and then hauls his cattle all over the place and his cows from last Christmas also work in this set. We had to superglue the barn sides together and glue the stalls in because they kept falling apart. He's been hauling all kinds of manure and chasing cows in/out of the new barn.

There were 3 big presents that said Charlie & Levi and after 3 LONG & PAINFUL days they finally got to open them. Levi's face is great here, he knows what's coming next.

Huge combine with 2 heads, a truck & trailer to move the heads and  a semi. When Haiden walked back into the room he just said, "WOAH, WOW!"

 

Uncle T rigged up a sled from an old wheelbarrow and pulled them behind the Kubota. Charlie loved it, Levi did not. Grandma got a ride, too. 

Happy to have her babies.

Passed out on the way home.

At 2 weeks post-Christmas, Charlie's most played with gift is probably Skip-bo. We have played so many times and he's pretty good :) He also loves all of the activity & drawing books he got and an experiment kit he got. As mentioned above, Levi is loving his new barn & the new corral.