oh & before I forget...

A very belated birthday to my wonderful Mom, Mary.  Her birthday was on December 23, so sometimes it all gets lost in the craziness of the holiday.  Love you mom!

Also, yesterday was my sis-in-law Leslie's birthday, I hope you had a great day!

our crazy busy Christmas

I know, I know, I've been a bad, bad blogger!  Right before Christmas, I was working on an exciting project for Reminisce & had a tight deadline to get everything out before Christmas Eve {okay, it went out that morning}, so with that, kids home on Christmas vacation, my wireless internet going out {still waiting for the company to return my router} & trying to prepare for the Klesner family celebration Christmas Eve night, I had found myself slightly stressed!  With my wireless out, it hasn't been very convenient to blog, but thank goodness for my sister's wireless {thanks Kim}.  

So anyway, as is our family tradition, we went to mass on Christmas Eve, where Collin served mass.  I remember the feeling as a kid having to wait through the entire mass before going home & then waiting for everyone to eat BEFORE we could touch our presents!  Pure agony!  One of my favorite things about Christmas is really getting dressed up for the special mass... I think we all looked quite lovely {too bad I didn't get someone to take our picture since we were all coordinated}.  Of course dressing Lydia up is my highlight.. she actually wore a dress I had bought for her last year off Ebay & she did wear it on Christmas day last year for a whole 2 hours.  The one I had ordered for this year ended up being so big it kept falling off her shoulders, so I took a chance & tried this one on & it still fit!  It looked even better on her this year since she can walk around in it!  I even curled her hair  & put pretties in.   She was very excited when she looked in the mirror & saw herself {she even gave herself a kiss!}.  After mass, we headed to my sister's house to have some very yummy food & finally let the kids open their gifts.  We start with the kids downstairs, where they open up gifts from their stockings.  From there we go from youngest to oldest to open gifts.  Lydia, of course, is the youngest, & everyone bought for her this year, so she got lots of good stuff.  Among her favorites: Little People house, dolly, dolly blankets & pillows, tea set, elmo puzzle & a dolly stroller.  She was quite possessive of her things & took a very long time to unwrap her things.  She scanned every gift obsessively until we showed her another unwrapped box for her to go onto.  The boys love Christmas eve with my family as well, I think it's their favorite because they get to play with all their cousins & they get alot of cool stuff in their stockings.  Their favorites were flashlights that hang around their necks, DS games, light sabre DS stylus {i'm sure there is more, I just can't remember}.  Here are some pictures from our gathering:

Making sure Leroy the dog doesn't get her chocolate!

Loved this Elmo book from Aunt Kathy!

Evan getting a little tickle from Santa.

This was the first present, which was an Elmo puzzle from cousin Erin.  It took her a good 10-15 to get it unwrapped & then she had to look at it for another 10-15 before she'd let us set it aside!

With her favorite boy, cousin Brennan.

and her favorite Mommy.

This was Lydie's first experience with Santa.  We were afraid she wouldn't react well if we took her to the mall to see him, so he was nice enough to come see us at Aunt Kim's!

and finally, a tired Lacey the dog. 

Whew!  When we finally got home & got the kid's to bed Christmas Eve, we still had a lot of work to get done to get ready for Christmas morning.  I think it was well after midnight before we got to bed!  Bright & early {about 5:30}, Collin was the first to come downstairs {we told him to go back to bed til at least 6}.  So, at the crack of 6, down come both the boys & we told them to be quiet & watch some tv & let Lydia sleep, since we knew she'd be grouchy.  After about a dozen trips into our bedroom to give us updates on how many cookies Santa ate, that he had filled the stockings, how many gifts he left under the tree, etc etc, Lydia got woke up, so we decided to let them open up their stockings.  The little miss was in quite a foul mood to start, but once she discovered opening gifts was involved, she was soon revived!  The boys got alot of stuff for their DS's, Collin's faves were a Rubix cube, some games, & drawing stuff.  Evan's faves were a new ds case & a new remote control that drives on walls!  Lydia got even more baby doll stuff & new rain boots!  Most of my pictures didn't turn out well, but here are a few that were ok:

New boots!

Santa even left a letter!

Playing with a teaset she got Christmas Eve.

The rest of Christmas day we were thankful we didn't have to go anywhere!  We did have visitors later in the afternoon & they even brought us some supper!  We were truly blessed with a wonderful Christmas with everyone we love.  

Unfortunately, we had planned the Saturday after Christmas to have a dinner at our house with the Meierotto clan, but with such wonderful weather, most of them weren't able to make it home.  So instead, we packed ourselves up & had lunch with Dan's parents & one of his brothers.  We got home just in time for Lydie to get a nap & then we were off to my cousin's for a Stuekerjuergen Christmas {my mom's family}.  Again, the weather threw a wrench in the plans.  Freezing rain set in & we only got to stay for a short time before going home.  So, that was our crazy busy Christmas.... I'm sure we're not the only ones!

God's gift...

This is probably my favorite quote of all time... from Desmond Tutu.  I have an old window done up with some pictures of the boys together from a few years back that I had stamped this on.  I had decided to do it up on a canvas with patterned paper & letter stickers & mod podge covering it all.  This one will go to someone who is particularly special to our family... I wish I had time to make one for everyone.....

Collin's Gingerbread creation

Collin's class had scheduled last Thursday afternoon to make gingerbread houses, but with the weather being so insane last week, they moved the event up to the morning.  As much as I wanted to, I hadn't planned on going to the school {lots of work to do!}, but at 10:30 I got a call from Collin, who begged me to come to help {how could I resist}.  So, I quickly got ready & when I got there, they were well into the project.  Collin was so excited to see me & I forgot about work responsibilities for a while & dove in!  The whole class had so much fun... it was really great to see all the different ways his friends made their houses as well.  By the time they were done with that, they went for a quick lunch & straight into their Christmas party, which was supposed to be Friday, but they were assuming the weather would cause cancelations {they were right!}.  Again, lots of fun, food & they were very excited to see what their teacher had for them {a new book for each of them & personalized pencils}.  They had not done a secret santa exchange the last few years, instead each class puts together donations for different causes, which is great.  After Collin got dismissed, we ran over to Evan's building to pick him up.  He was wired... showing me all the goodies that he had gotten.  They were so excited to not only get out early that day, but to start their Christmas vacation extra early!  Hooray.  By the way, we got the ice here, but luckily have kept power.  VERRRRY cold here, though & looks as if we'll be getting some yucky weather again tomorrow.  

just waiting....

for the storm to hit.  We're up for an ice storm this afternoon & tonight.  They're already saying to be ready for electricity outages.  Last time we got a storm like this I was pregnant with Lydia (2 wks from my c-section).  We ended up losing power for a week {2 poles down on our road}, had to move in with my sister & brother in law {love you guys!} & had a little stress related contractions!  We got back in our house about a week before we had to go to the hospital.  Ahhh, memories!  Just wondering Kim & Randy, do we get first dibs on your basement if we lose power & you have it?