Living a far distance from family always makes holidays a bit more challenging with deciding when and where to go. Our decision was made a bit for us this year when I was scheduled to work on Christmas Eve and the 27th, so we escaped for an early Christmas in Wisconsin this year. We flew the 14th and returned the 23rd, with great flights and surprisingly no lines at the airports. We had a sweet moment while waiting for our luggage at our return to Saskatoon where a four-year-old boy started sing
Rudolph from start to end with others joining in a bit. It helped us stay in the spirit when we were feeling a bit like Christmas was already over.
In Wisconsin we had not-so-perfect roads from Minneapolis to Colfax and then we had some snowed in days at the start of our stay. We later thought the day we couldn't go anywhere due to visibility was actually a blessing in disguise as we were able to rest a bit before the busy holiday travels and parties began. We enjoyed a night out with the three of us and my parents eating Mexican food and had a Packer party at our friends Pat and Audra's with a chance to see lots of other friends. We had lots of relatives stop in at my parent's house to say hi and we enjoyed a couple gatherings with Eric's extended family, one at his aunt and uncle, Dick and Elly's and at Eric's brother and sister-in-law's home. My brother was home from Colorado and my sister and boyfriend Brandon made trips back and forth from Eau Claire so we could soak up visiting with them.
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| There was no line to see Santa and Annabel didn't even realize where she was walking as she marched down the red carpet. She got down the path and walked right up to Santa, was startled, and just turned right around!! |
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| I set her on his lap and she wasn't too sure, but didn't get upset. We had been showing her pictures of Santa and pointing him out and she had learned "ho, ho, ho-ee." Since there wasn't a line, Santa showed her a book, cuddled her, and talked to her....it was sooo sweet!! |
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| Once again, we failed at sending out Christmas cards. We came closer this year by actually ordering them, but they arrived blurry. (Walmart reimbursed us!) Maybe one of these years we will pull it together and actually send one out. |
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| Bapa teaching piano |
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| She enjoyed opening gifts this year. She immediately started to put on outfit from my sister. As you can see, she did a good job with the shirt. |
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| This captures what I love about Christmas gatherings: family, food, drinks, and laughter! (Aunt Karen and cousin Carrie) |
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| Annabel (18 mo.) and cousin Ava (9 mo.) |
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| Can you guess which person married into the family? |
Back in Saskatoon:
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| Annabel enjoyed taking ornaments off and putting them back on our tiny tree. |
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| She is trying to put these tiny ice skate ornaments on!!! So funny!! She tried a couple different leg positions and techniques with no success. |
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| Santa brought Big Hugs Elmo, with whom Annabel has a love-hate relationship. For quite awhile she would stick her lip out and feel really bad when Elmo told her to "be gentle." It was quite sad because she hadn't done anything wrong and she felt Elmo was scolding her. I've tried to explain to her that he is just being silly and it has gotten better. It is one of those things where I wanted to choose a cool gift for her, but maybe didn't make the best choice. I suppose every year there will be "hit" and "flop" gifts. |
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| She loves bacon!! Are we surprised? |
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| Back in Saskatoon with new Elmo slippers from Grandma Ya Ya (Annabel says Bapa for Grandpa, but when asked about Grandma (Paula) she is either silent or says Ya Ya. Grandma June is consistently JjuJju. |
We've been laying low at home for most of January, as it has been very cold. Annabel is still enjoying her day home care and even did well at an alternative day home for a week while her's was on vacation. Hopefully this post will put me back into the spirit of sharing our happenings; I just realized I never did Part 3: Warsaw of our Europe trip. We had a fun Friday night at a kid's fundraiser dance and we are jumping on the Canadian bandwagon with a trip to warm weather coming soon. And, the days are getting longer so we have nothing to complain about there!!
