Hitting rewind to the middle of December takes me back to the days of Christmas melodies playing 24/7, multiple packages arriving daily, and baking and decorating and Christmas cheer in abundance.
A couple weekends after our family traveled to St. Charles for a fun family getaway, Marcus and I made the trek again, this time to meet up with cousins! Lily actually came along as well and the boys spent the weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's while Mom and Dad enjoyed some alone time.... with the baby :).
We enjoyed going to the downtown St. Charles Christmas Traditions again for the second time this season! This time we caroled our way down the streets, made friends with the whimsical Jack Frost, and exchanged multiple jokes with Babushka.
The eight of us cousins ventured into St. Louis on Saturday stopping first at the City Museum! We may or may not have acted way younger than we should and attracted a few interesting looks from the onlooking museum employees, but we certainly enjoyed ourselves :). We then discovered a little Indian restaurant for lunch before spending some time roaming the streets of The Loop.
We filled our time back at Matt and Kim's with lots of game playing and the all around good-natured
banter that always happens when we are together.
It was a great trip, making two great trips to St. Louis in two weeks; so glad it worked out for all of us!
Another big highlight of our Christmas season was actually getting to the point of performance with the choir we have been working with for the past few months! Some of us had our doubts after the first practice, but everyone worked so hard all semester and we pulled off the program quite well, if I must say so myself :). It was a rewarding evening!
a fun Christmas activity one afternoon...
aha... the aforementioned 'multiple packages'. It think it is safe to say that Amazon has us hooked. Hopefully the mailman begins to see a rapid decrease in the number of deliveries to this rural location, considering Christmas is officially over for another year.
more Christmas cookie baking! This time with friends to deliver to the seniors who we caroled to that evening.
The next day was our family Christmas. This day is also a big deal in our family as we pack it full of family traditions and Christmas merriment! As was previously mentioned, we were obligated to share our day with a certain uninvited guest... we were all feeling pretty rotten by this time, aside from Kenan who was pulling through it slowly. Oh well, we made the most of our day and looking on the bright side of things, I guess it was more comforting to all be feeling lousy rather than just one of us?! Thankfully, by the next day we were on the uphill climb, and were able to enjoy our Christmas dinner just one day late :). All's well that ends well!
in spite of not feeling up to par, we still tried to continue on with our family traditions... one being the string game!
(I spy Baby :))
The boys were the lucky recipients of drones this Christmas. The rest of the family members were unlucky recipients of much trauma to follow as a result of the gifts. The following drama happened soon after the drones were opened.
drone flying
drone crash
baby crying
Dad: "Get those out of the living room right now!!!!"
Thankfully, no harm was done... yet. :)
Ahh, Dad's Christmas dinner does beat all! Especially when you haven't eaten real food for 24 hours. Thankfully it appeared to have settled well for everyone! :)
With no Christmas trees available, we improvised! In fact, we went all out - picture here is Landon, one tree out of our five! They just couldn't move very easily for a group picture. :)
The week between Christmas and the New Year, we enjoyed a variety of Christmas break activities and of course, two more birthday celebrations. Along with one of the birthday celebrations came a new drivers license!! Congratulations to Marcus for being able to purchase his first car a couple of months ago and now having the license to drive it himself! I'll have to get a picture up sometime of the recent addition to the BLUNR parking lot...
The younger kids have been enjoying a new game from the neighbors!
Jordan and Cambria were able to join us for more birthday celebration...
On Friday, we again made the trek out to Princeville, this time for Leman Christmas. Although we basically doubled our typical travel time, we were glad to be able to make it safely in spite of the weather conditions and the fact that Dad wasn't with us due to an unfortunate situation happening earlier in the week. But by Friday afternoon, we were all safely reunited in Princeville and settled in for a good time with cousins!
do you ever feel sorry for babies who are like magnets at any big event and are just passed around from person to person for hours on end? I don't know, maybe they don't care. I think I would, though:). We're glad that everyone loves her, though!
the ping-pong tournament is a big deal at our Christmas! Marcus and U. Dean were the grand champion winner this year.
rip sticking is another big deal... for some of us :).
Our bringing in the New Year wasn't anything super grand although we did enjoy some family games and Marcus and I enjoyed spending time with the young group! And of course, we continued our tradition of singing happy birthday to Lily before we go to bed on New Year's Day, and when we wake up :).
Last but not least, Lily's birthday! It always does feel nice when all of the mass celebration finally ends :).
This past week left room for a few more Christmas break activities...
... before it was back to school for most of us! It's good to get back into the swing of things and our typical routine although it is always nice to have a break, as well. :)
I'll close with this cheery picture of these two one day last week when Cambria came to visit! Apparently, some of us are tougher than others when it comes to venturing out into the Arctic.
And that brings me back to the present, with Christmas behind us and more memories to last forever. We are certainly hoping it warms up here soon, otherwise we have considered crashing G + G's trip to Florida... :).
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