Christmas!

We started out our Christmas vacation with a trip to Papa and Nani's new farmhouse in Southern Iowa.  We got there late Friday night, so we saved present opening and fun for the morning.

We also got to see the tractor, horses, and play on the hay in the barn!

Daniel with Papa's horse, Silvio

Leslie and Silvio

Next, we traveled up to my parent's house.  We went to see my Grandma Robins in her nursing home to open presents, and then came home to decorate cookies.

Overnight it snowed!  A white Christmas Eve!  Daniel and Leslie were ecstatic.  Daniel was excited to get out there and shovel ASAP, so we did.

Later that afternoon we went to visit our friends, the Hilliards (Mark and Latsamy).  We enjoyed catching up with them and seeing the kids play.  Daniel joined Elizabeth and her friend outside for some sledding and snowball fun.  Leslie loved playing with Catherine and coloring inside.

Daniel and Elizabeth - Hot cocoa buddies

Leslie and Catherine - Coloring buddies

Enjoying Minecraft together

Modeling her new accessories from the Hilliards

Christmas Eve we set out cookies for Santa, food for the reindeer, and went to bed to prepare for an another exciting day.

Christmas Morning:

After we saw what Santa brought and opened some presents, we headed to Gene and Mary Jo's house.  We always enjoy their company.  Thankfully, cousin Allison was in town too!  After catching up and watching the kids and Mary Jo running through the house chanting "Party in the house!" (it's adorable... they did it last year and remembered how fun it was... wish I had a video of it.), we headed back to my parent's house to work on our Christmas feast.  I made a turkey.  This is the first time I've attempted to make a turkey, and it turned out pretty well!

Cousin cuties

Likely discussing very important topics like which TV shows they're currently watching

Coloring with Aunt Mary Jo

They have an old Super Nintendo that Bobby and Daniel played Donkey Kong on

We had a massive, delicious dinner, the kids played some more, and then got the kids ready for bed.  After they went to sleep, the adults stayed up and played a dice game called Farkle.  I've played this game several times before.  To say I don't really enjoy it is an understatement.  I believe my exact words were, "I hate that effing game."  All you have to do is roll 1's or 5's.  For some reason, I just can't seem to roll 1's or 5's.  Change the game to 3's and 6's, and I'm pretty sure I'd win.  But for some reason, I decided to play.  Not only did I get on the board this time, but I came in 2nd place... which is incredible for me.  More than anything, we laughed and laughed.  It's always fun to play game with my family.  I love these people.

Master carver or novice?  He did great for his first time carving a turkey!

Grandpa and Daniel

Great Grandma and Leslie

We headed home the next morning.  The trip was pretty uneventful until we were just North of Cameron (about an hour away from our house).  We hit some snow, icy bridges, and traffic, but made it home.  When we got home, Daniel wanted to shovel.  (I love that he wants to do this!)  So we let him at it.  We tried to sled, but there just wasn't enough snow.

I'm not a big fan of driving in the Wintery stuff, but I absolutely love seeing how much our kids love the snow.  I'm really glad we live somewhere where we get four distinct seasons.

We hope everyone had a merry Christmas!  We wish you all the best in 2018!