Christmas 2016

Christmas 2016 was another wonderful couple days spent with family!  I am super sad that the rest of the world appears to have today off, but I have to work (we had Friday off instead).

Christmas Eve morning Emma wanted to start a tradition of making us reindeer pancakes.

I'd say that was a success!

We got all of our food ready and headed out to Brad's sisters around noon to watch the Vikings (they lost...).  We proceeded to eat all.day.long.  Seriously, so much good food!

Everyone was happy with their gifts!

Love this one of Brad with his niece's daughter, Izzy... 

Since we were there so early, we left earlier than normal, which was actually really nice!  We got home around 5 and got our comfy clothes on!

The girls always open 3 gifts from us, one is always a new pair of jammies.  I think Alayna loved her gift from Uncle Pat and  Aunt Katherine and cousins!

The girls always sleep in Rachels room on Christmas Eve, love that tradition!  I came in to say goodnight and mousey had her bed all made up, too cute!

Excited for Christmas morning!!

I made caramel rolls for breakfast, and Brad made eggs and liver sausage.

The girls came down around 5:45 and everyone was thrilled with their gifts!!  It was nice to just hang out and not be rushed.  

We headed to church at 9, thinking the roads might be bad, but thankfully they weren't.  We did, however, get a pretty nasty ice storm and wind.  I had a hard time sleeping last night with how loud the wind was...

Christmas Day we spent at the farm, it was very nice, lots of yummy food!  We played cards and just hung out.  I came home around 7, since I have to work today, it was nice to have the house quiet, haha!

This is my favorite gift I get  from the girls every year, my Erin Condren Planner.  LOVE it!  I couldn't imagine my life without my planner.

                                                   

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!!!

Macy's Santaland

Friday Brad and I were both off and decided to take the girls down to Minneapolis to see Macy's Santaland for the last time.  Macy's is closing in 2017 which is so sad.  It's a huge historical building with 12 floors.  They have restaurants, Starbucks, basically anything you would need.  We figured we would go since we had never been before.

We left around noon and the girls watched "The Grinch" on the way down.  Traffic, thankfully was perfect!  It was snowy and a little drizzley, so we weren't 100% sure we would go.  We made it down there around 2 and waited in line for about an hour just to be able to walk through the Santaland.

It was worth the wait, so see how excited the girls were, especially mouse!  I gave her my phone to take pics, so these are all taken by her!

Waiting to get in!

The neat thing about this display is that it is animated, so many of the people/elves are moving, it really is magical!!

The singing trees...

Our favorite part was the bakery, everything looks so real!

Down in the holiday store they had a station set up to write Santa a letter.  Even though Alayna found out after Christmas last year that mom and dad are Santa, you wouldn't know it, she is very good at pretending he's real!!

She asked for a new Lego house, Hatchimal and Barbies.  Emma also added that she really wanted an iPhone, haha!!

After we were done there, we headed over to Maple Grove and ate at Granite City.  Great food and lots of fun hanging out with my family.  We got home around 7 and watched my favorite Christmas movie, "The Family Stone".  Love that movie!  And for the record, I cry every.single.time.

Now it's Christmas Eve, and I wanted one last pic of the tree full of gifts (and can you spot the naughty elf???)

Today will be a busy and fun day eating and watching the Vikings!  Let's hope they can give us a great Christmas present and actually WIN!

Merry Christmas Eve e

Merry Christmas Eve Eve!!!

I cannot believe it's Christmas Eve Eve!  I feel like this year has completely flown by, and in a few weeks it will be 2017.  Yowsa.

I'm linking up with Andrea, Narci and Erika for another Friday Favorites!

If you haven't shopped at Aldi yet, you need to cruise your little booty to one asap...These dark chocolate sea salt caramels are AMAZING!!!  Seriously, they are by far the best I have ever had, and cheap!  I went back on Monday and bought 4 more containers to have on hand, haha!  I did give one container to my girlfriend for her birthday, and brought one to work to share.  I might have to grab a couple more this week....

 

Wednesday night Brad and I went with his sister, brother and their spouses to Paramount for the Rock and Roll Christmas Spectacular.  It was awesome!  It's a group of local musicians that add Christmas lyrics to rock songs, it's hilarious!!

It was a nice  Christmas-y event to go to and we already said we would make this a yearly tradition!

Last night we did our annual Christmas Light Night...we all get cozy in our jammies, make hot cocoa and drive around looking at lights while watching "Christmas Vacation".  We were a little sad that there didn't seem to be many lights to look at, but we still had a blast!

Today we are hoping to head down to the cities and go to Macy's one last time for their Santa Land.  The do this huge Christmas display, but this is the last year as they are closing.  We are supposed to get some freezing rain/snow, so we're going to play it by ear.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas Eve Eve!!!

Whats Up Wednesday

Wow, two days in a row of posting...what's become of me??!!

Linking up today with Shay, Sheaffer and Mel for Whats Up Wednesday!




1.  What We're Eating This Week:

I am loving the blog Damn Delicious!  Her recipes are SO easy and SO yummy!  We had this one last week:
Homemade Hamburger Helper



And this was a big hit too from Taste of Home:
Chicken Ala King



This week has been a hodge podge....We're eating out a couple nights and enjoying some left overs.

Saturday Emma plans on making some reindeer pancakes for everyone for breakfast.



And then I will be making my Sweet and Sour Meatballs for an appetizer with Brad's family on Christmas Eve.  I have made these every.single.year for 19 years, and everyone still makes sure I am making them!



2.  What I'm Reminiscing About:

Obviously with Christmas here, I am reminiscing about a lot of things, but mostly, how much I miss my Grandmas.  I so badly wish they could be here to see what traditions we have adopted and how much a part of our lives they still are.  There isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of them or miss them..

3.  What I'm Loving:

Ummmmm, everything Christmas???

4.  What We've Been Up To:

See my post here about our Christmas Traditions.

5.  What I'm Dreading:

I've got a couple things I'm not overly excited about coming up in January, but needs to be done.  However, once that is done, means vacation will soon be here!!

6.  What I'm Working On:

Getting my Christmas shopping done!  Amen.

7.  What I'm Excited About:

CHRISTMAS!!!



 8.  What I'm Watching/Reading:

ALLLLLLL the Christmas movies!!!  I just finished reading "The Celler"  by Natasha Preston.  It was REALLY good, but not an uplifting book.

9.  What I'm Listening To:

All the Christmas tunes, of course!

10.  What I'm Wearing:

I just ordered this shirt in Fig and I LOVE it!  It is really flattering.



And I also can't live without my blardigan....
It is so warm and cozy.



10.  What I'm Doing This Weekend:

Christmas!!!

11.  What I'm Looking Forward to Next Month:

As much as I love Christmas, I do love getting my house back to normal and I really love all the New Year hype!  I will be on a major health kick, since I've been eating crappy for a couple weeks now and we are taking the kids to Mexico this spring.  This body needs some help, haha!

I pray that each of you has a blessed Christmas/Holiday season!!!

Christmas Traditions

I am linking up with Shay and Andrea for their last Show and Tell Tuesday!

This month's link up is Christmas Traditions and Recipes.

If you know anything about me, you know that I love Christmas.  LOVE.  It's my favorite time of the year!  I grew up loving Christmas and the older I got and then having kids has just increased that love by a billion percent, haha!!

This is me when school starts, because I know that very soon Christmas decorating starts!!

This year we put up all our Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving (and I even hosted this year!).  With me working full time, I want to make sure I enjoy every drop of the Holiday Season!

You can see my holiday home tour here.

Now back to traditions.  We are big on traditions, just ask Emma.  If we don't do something exactly the same every year, she has a melt down!

The Friday after Thanksgiving is typically when we put up all the decor, I made a crockpot of apple cider and we get busy.  We listen to Christmas music for a bit, but when we decorate the tree, we have the movie elf on.  (You can see my fave Chrismtas movies here)

The weeks following Thanksgiving, we try and watch every Christmas movie and Hallmark movie at least twice, haha!  I love December, because it is probably the quietest month of the year for us, no sports at all!

We get in lots of family game nights...

We love to bake treats.  We always make the typical cut outs...

And several batches of my Grandma Omi's molasses cookies.  They are SO delicious, the girls love them too.

Our elf Billy is always a fun tradition....

We also enjoy doing an advent family devotional...

We pick a night to drive around and look at Christmas lights.  Last year we played the movie, "Christmas Vacation" while we drove around and it was so fun, the girls can't wait to do this on Thursday.  I make a big thermos of hot cocoa, and off we go!

This year we are going to head down to the cities on Friday to go through Macy's one last time as it is closing.  They always decorate a big Christmas area (like a whole level) and I am excited to see it this year!  We are also going to go to Holidazzle, which is just a big outdoor market.  We've never done that either and can't wait!

Christmas Eve is always spent with Brad's family.  We head over to his sisters mid afternoon, and everyone brings an appetizer to share.  Always so much good food!  We hang out there until around 7 and then come home.

We are typically so stuffed, but I like to have some cheese and crackers and other little apps sitting out.  We turn on the yule log and open gifts with the girls.  The end of the evening is spent watching "Christmas Vacation" (can you tell we like that movie??!!) and then the girls usually all sleep in the same room.  Love that.  Hopefully that continues!

Christmas morning we have caramel rolls and liver sausage (nasty) and enjoy all of our gifts.  The last couple years we started going to Christmas mass on Christmas morning instead of Christmas Eve.  It got to be way too much running around and hectic on Christmas Eve.  We LOVE Christmas mass!

For dinner we take turns with our families, this year we will spend it with Brad's on Christmas Day, and then the first weekend in January with my mom and step dad and siblings.  Can't wait!!

I hope each of you has an amazing and blessed Christmas this year!