blizzard bowling

why is that the title of this post you ask? because yesterday afternoon, in the middle of a blizzard that caused a 100 car pile-up on I-94(maybe you saw it on the news?), our family decided to go bowling. it was on our to do list for Christmas vacation and we weren't going to let a little thing like the 2nd to the last blizzard of 2010 get in our way. {it's 2nd to the last because there's another one arriving today}- aren't we lucky?

to quote my eldest: "why do we even live here???"

I'm not really sure if the good times we had at The Bowler that day outweighed risking our lives on the road but we made it in one piece so all well that ends well! right?

Christmas morning...

is there anything better when you're a kid?

I LOVE watching them come down the stairs to find what Santa brought them... it reminds me of when I was little and my sister Sarah would nearly have to be resuscitated 4 times at the top of the stairs while my mom kept telling us "not yet!"

Santa brought lots of good stuff- the kids must have been really good this year!

Santa ate his cookies and milk! And the reindeer devoured their apple and celery. Santa also wrote back to them telling them he loved them too. :)

This little hamster was what Mary Beth wanted most this year! It was hiding in her stocking.

Lots of thankfulness for presents.

I love that they still hug each other all the time.

Jeffrey LOVES raccoons and hats. So Mickey got him this hat.

They LOVED the presents from Nonna and Nonno. When I suggested BOP IT to my mom as a game idea, I failed to realize that it makes A LOT of noise. :) They play it all day every day. Especially Mary Beth.

My cute new slippers:

The rest of the day was spent relaxing, cooking, watching A Christmas Story, eating, and of course PLAYING with new toys. It was a wonderful Christmas.

my winter mantle

i stuck my "m" up there to decide if I like it. what would the "m" stand for? mommy, mantle, merry? or i could flip it upside down and make it a "w" for winter? hmmm....

i didn't want to put all my pretty mercury glass away for the year yet so I decided to create a "winter-y" themed mantle display. I also used my favorite new book page wreath that I learned how to make here.

I realize I still haven't posted our pictures from Christmas Day- whoops!

They'll be coming tomorrow- I promise!

i want to wash my face and hair in snow...

the kids needed to burn off some energy today so they went out for hours to play in the one thing we have a TON of here in Fargo: SNOW! they built tunnels and forts and every time I turned around they were shoving snow in their mouths(despite my years of explaining how there is animal excrement and god-knows-what-else in there!) then they'd look at me like "what??" ugh. what is with kids and eating snow- gross.

of course they got hot cocoa and I made sure to take a picture of the first 500 piece puzzle we all completed yesterday{before I boxed it back up}. it killed us to take it apart after all that work!

Snowball

by Shel Silverstein

I made myself a snow ball as perfect as could be.

I thought I'd keep it as a pet and let it sleep with me.

I made it some pajamas and a pillow for it's head.

Then, last night it ran away.

But first -- it wet the bed.

super cute Christmas story video

Happy, Happy Birthday Nonna!

It's my Mom's Birthday today! I wish we were together like we usually are...

Every year my mom tries to get everyone to let her open her birthday presents as soon as she has opened her last Christmas present. My Dad says no. Then on her birthday she is always happy if she waited and sad if she didn't. I sent her some cute bird and butterfly papers that she wanted and made her some wool/felt flower pins.

She always says she loves homeade gifts the best.

We all called her this evening and sang Happy Birthday{a tradition our family has- if we can't be together} and she sounded like she was having a very nice day with my dad and sister.

Happy Birthday Mom- we love you!

A Very Merry Christmas to you!

{ sketch by Lindsay at her awesome blog Lindsay Letters }

Listen to this lovely song {and watch the video} by Audrey Assad with Chris Tomlin... here

Our Christmas Eve

First off let me explain why I took a picture of the meatballs: they are reason number 4? how I ruined Christmas. I mixed 1lb hamburger and 1lb pork sausage like usual... the store was out of Italian sausage so I told John to get the regular pork sausage. Well- apparently it was a maple breakfast sausage because the meatballs and then the sauce and then the lasagna(all of which took me all day to prepare) tasted like maple syrup!!! The kitchen smelled like Sunday morning breakfast. When we sat down to supper Mickey took one bite of his meatball(always his favorite food) and said "my meatball tastes like syrup"- mind you I hadn't said anything to him about it.

So there's the proof.
We also made a second batch of our favorite m&m cookies since the last batch was gone and Santa needed some!

Yummy!

Christmas pictures after church...

I love these pictures.

And the munchkins in them!

Our Jimmy Dean lasagna and meatball supper.

Everyone ate it though. Thank goodness we didn't have company over!

That would have been so embarrassing!

Every Christmas Eve the kids get to open 1 present. It's always new jammies.

Same as when I was little.

This year I got matching ones- aren't they precious?

Cookies, milk, celery & an apple(for the reindeer of course!) and a note to Santa telling him they love him. :)

Then Daddy always reads The Night Before Christmas.

Isn't this sweet?

Hanging the stockings(I love it that we have a fireplace at this house!)

Everything was ready for Santa and the kids hopped off to bed. I think I love Christmas Eve even more than Christmas Day- it's full of so many traditions... I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas Eve too!