Early Christmas

Matching jammies from Grandma and Grandpa

My parents and brother Ben leave tomorrow for Vienna!! I am so excited for them! I really wish we could be going to see Tony, Catherine and Alexander, but it just wasn't realistic for us this year. Have an amazing time, and think about us often... drink some gluhwein for me, please!

Since we will be apart for Christmas, we celebrated in early December instead. Aside from the obvious glaring absences (T,C & A), we had a terrific time! We munched on goodies all afternoon and played some Buck Euchre, of course. We opened presents before dinner, which Max really got into! He got a work bench and tools, a battery-powered guitar, and some cute clothes. Since that day, he has become "Max the Builder", even though he still refers to the rest of us by our pirate names.

Lucian received a cool Mozart Cube- and I don't know if he or Max enjoys it more! He was a little confused by the idea of ripping paper off of presents, but Max made sure he figured it out.

From my parents, Paul and I got... drum roll please... a DEEP FREEZE! Since our new fridge has a much smaller freezer than our old one, we wanted some extra space so that we can buy larger quantities of meat on sale and make extra food to freeze. Super exciting!

After our traditional yummy Christmas Eve dinner of clam chowder and twisty breadsticks, Paul, Ben and I went out bowling- we decided that time spent together is better than any gift we could get for each other, so as our gift to each other we bowled, played darts, and played Buck Hunter late into the night! Thanks, M&D for watching the kiddos!

Sunday morning, we were greeted by an amazing brunch (my parents are brunch superstars! No one has ever outdone them in my book) and we chilled out at home for the rest of the morning. What a great time spent with family!

I'm very low on pictures- I forgot to change the battery in my camera before heading down to Burnsville, but when I get copies of my mom's pics, I'll try to post some more.

Uh...what am I supposed to do with this thing?

Here, let me help you!