Our Snowy Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Some things I wanted to jot down so as to not forget!

1. Christmas Cookies! We spent some quality time making, frosting, and candy-coating cookies for Santa. It was hard for the kids to stop eating the cookie dough – memories of my childhood w/ Mom and Grandma Morse…

2. The snow! Yes, we always seem to want a white Christmas until it does 5-16 inches across the state (along with some pre-party ice/sleet)
3. Christmas Eve Mass – we got there early (45 minutes early) and got some pretty good seats. The kids did well throughout thanks to some good distractions packed by Mommy.

4. Christmas Eve Dinner – for the past three years we have made Grandma Swenson’s ham balls – delish.
5. Cade making sure we cleared the way for Santa to get in the house by moving any objects obstructing the fireplace.
6. Decals…not fun to put on!
7. The kids slept in until 7:45/8:00! Cade actually was up at 6:04, but went back to sleep in a make-shift bed next to ours! Good rest for mom and dad!
8. Excitement over all gifts from Santa

9. Glad to see cookies ate, Cade’s card was taken by Santa, and evidence left by Santa (a boot print) by the fireplace.
10. Breakfast – eggs, sausage and doughnuts. The kids ate great…I think mostly because we made them wait until after breakfast to open gifts from us!
11. Scooping the snow! We had to get out and clean the snow off for the four-wheelers. We managed to hold off until Noon, but these four-wheelers are not made for snow!
12. Lunch – we made ham-salad from remaining hamball meat…then started eating them only to find out the ham (we think) was not cooked… The nurse at Mercy thinks we will be ok…just watching for “turning stomachs”.
13. The barking dog (to the tune of jingle bells) – a gift from my boss is the most popular toy in the house…and the most annoying… ;-)
14. Breck wanting to put on her new elmo & zoe underwear…we put them on over her pants – pretty funny.

15. Trying to figure out plans for trying to head to Minden (will it happen?) in the snow…while trying to figure out what to have for dinner as we were not planning on being home Christmas Night!

I am sure there will be more to come, but I wanted to jot down a note from our day. It has been a nice family day. The kids have had their usual battles over toys, but they also have had some good times playing together. I am thankful for our family time this holiday. Merry Christmas!

Happy October 10th...

I knew it was supposed to "snow" today, but I didn't think we would wake up to this! The kids are beyond excited, wanting to eat and shovel the snow. I'm sure glad I bought these mums a week ago.

Winter ~ Please Go

Dear Winter,

Please go away. You are not welcome here anymore. We really enjoyed you back in November and December, but it's now April and you are still hanging around...it's time to go. Seriously. we've had enough hot cocoa and we've been cooped up inside long enough...we will welcome you back again, but for now, you MUST GO. Please, just pack up your suitcase and leave us alone. Take our coats, hats, and mittens with you. We are ready for green grass and flowers, flip-flops and warm sun.

TTFN,

The Morses

December

The highlights of our December...

We counted down the days until Christmas!

I attended an Advent by Candlelight at my aunt's church...she invited 10 people and then has to decorate a table and serve dessert. We were entertained by choir, a band (with a clarinet, who knew anyone played after high school?), and bells. It was a nice, relaxing way to begin the holiday season. And the dessert was awesome...Italian wedding cake. How cute is her table?!

We had pictures taken with Julia and Lauren for Christmas gifts for grandparents and Brecken had her 1-Year pictures taken.

We celebrated our niece Julia's sixth birthday at her house and then to Pizza Ranch for dinner...we were babysitting Jim's little cousin Sarah, so she went with and the kids were WILD! Thank goodness for party rooms!

I took a day off to finish up my Christmas shopping...except I didn't finish. Accomplished a lot though and got to meet Jim for lunch at P.F. Chang's. Our first meal without children in quite some time! I lost my list half way through the day...that didn't help!

Jim had a night out with his Investment Club. They went to All Play downtown...it's a Chuck E. Cheese for adults basically.

Listened to lots of Christmas music (yes, I'm one that doesn't mind that it starts playing before Thanksgiving).

I had a "night out" to go watch my cousin Ali perform in the Nutcracker Ballet at the Hoyt Sherman Theater downtown. She was an angel and had a limited part, but she was awesome. Another little girl in her group fell down when she was running out onto the stage...twice! These are second graders, felt so bad for her, she was crying afterwards. Broke my heart! Afterwards we went out to dinner at Spaghetti Works with my mom, aunts, the Cases, Ali, and her friends. Jim and the kids stayed home with Grandpa Clark.

Had an early Christmas with my Dad & Celeste. While they were here, we went and saw Santa at the Winterfest here in town. It was freezing cold, but we waited in line for Santa. Cade told him he wanted a sled and a snowblower. I don't think Santa is going to deliver on the snowblower! Brecken sat on his lap, but was pretty emotionless. I personally, thought he looked a little scary! There was someone carving ice sculptures, cookies and cocoa at the community center, and horse & wagon rides. It's a really cute little celebration, but it was soooo cold.


We also got together with my aunt and her kids for dinner. My aunt made lutefisk (fish) and lefse (like tortillas, but Norwegian I guess?) like my grandparents used to. She went to a lot of work and it brought back memories of holidays spent with my grandparents. The best was taking the leftover lefse or potato cakes and putting butter and sugar on them...yum! My four cousins all live near us, but we really only see them once or twice a year. It's fun to see all of our kids together...the older boys (Steven, Nathan, and Alec) are so good with the younger kids (Cade, Brecken, Julia, Lauren, Olivia, Danika, Cale, and Lola)and Cade had a blast playing rough and doing what little boys do. He kept calling Alec, Alex but thought it was pretty cool that they had the same Puma shoes. Cale had a toy gun so I'm pretty sure Cade thought he was the coolest kid he'd ever met. Brecken was a little overwhelmed, but was happy to wander around exploring their house and take ornaments off their tree. Our contribution to the night was Swedish Meatballs...made mainly by Jim and my dad...they were delish too!


We attempted to get a good family photo...

We celebrated Christmas with my mom and Clark, my brother and family, and Clark's kids and families. We cut back this year, can't you tell?

Thumbs up Jer!

We drove through the Jolly Holiday Lights and stopped at Santa's Village at the end and visited him again...highly recommend this for seeing Santa...not much of a line at all and they have cookies, hot cocoa, etc. Cade asked "if Santa cut his beard because the last time we saw Santa he had a long, curly one."


We spent Christmas Eve at home which was a little weird but nice. Most of the day was spent preparing food. We decided that taking Brecken to church was just not the best idea, so just Jim and Cade went to the 3:30 mass. Cade did pretty good. We had an interesting dinner at home, the food was good, the behavior was not. I think Brecken ate before us and then Cade sat in time-out while we were eating...it was really peaceful and relaxing. ; ) We opened some presents that evening and then got ready for Santa by leaving cookies, milk, and carrots...Cade fell asleep watching "Cars" on our new ipod. I think his favorite gift was the "Star Wars" t-shirt...would wear it 24/7 if we would let him.

Brecken just could not keep her little hands off of the Christmas tree...we found ornaments strung about the house...I think she ended up breaking three and by the end of the season, our tree was only decorated on the upper half because every time she took one off, it got put up a little bit higher.

We woke Christmas morning to find that Santa had visited. It was really iffy there for awhile! He brought a Cabbage Patch Kid (named Nelda), a tent and tunnel (did he think we had room for that?), a sled, a wheelbarrow, and a Wii as a "family gift." : )

After playing for a bit, we headed to my mom and Clark's to celebrate Christmas with my mom's side of the family. We stayed there for a few days which is always fun because Cade loves it there and we can relax and kind of disconnect from everything at home. We ate, played a lot of games, and ate more. Seriously, we were like on the two-hour plan for eating.

My cousin Troy is a Husker fan so every year there is at least one or two "gifts" exchanged...one year it was a mug plastered with pictures of Cade in a Husker hat, this year my mom wrapped up 5 boxes of Cyclone Crunch for him.

Brecken was up to her ornament snatching at Grandma's too...

Cade got to try out his new sled...

We also had a chance to visit our friends, the Wilsons, and have dinner with them. Kaleigh made some delicious Cornish hens and made her famous Creme Brulee. Cade thought "the torch" was pretty cool!
Jim also had a chance to visit his grandparents. Grandma Eileen had knee replacement surgery right after Christmas so Jim took them some meals that we had prepared so they could have some easy dinners while she was recovering.
Our little Rudolphs...Sue helped the kids make these at daycare...such a cute idea! The reindeer antlers are their traced hands.

What a busy month! We loved every minute of it and can't wait 'til next (or this) year!