Christmas Recovery

Christmas finery!  And the loot.  Conor's big gifts were the drone and an ipod touch, Josie got the fish, clothes and books, Lincoln's favorite was the train and remote control car and plenty of cars and trucks.  After Grandma and Grandpa left we spent the week skiing as much as we could, playing games and snuggling at home together.  The Wilson's came skiing with us once, which made for a great fun day.  One Sunday morning Conor glanced out the window and noticed 2 moose wandering down out street!  What luck.  Not a sight you see hardly ever!  

Christmas Day!

It's Christmas!!! It's Christmas!!! Santa came and he brought some fun stuff. Josie got some real live fish! Conor got a drone and Lincoln got a Crane.We had a wonderful Christmas day.  Presents galore, the traditional ham and cheesy potatoes dinner,  we got to skype with most of our loved ones, we played with all out new toys and we played games together and enjoyed being together. 

-traditional top of the stairs tortuous wait

-let the present opening begin!

-Christmas dinner!

-Lincoln got a remote control car and almost wore it out.  He had a blast!

So much fun with Grandma and Grandpa...we are so blessed that they braved the snow and came to spend the holidays with us. 

Skyping with the Witt's

Conor out flying his drone

Christmas Eve Sleddig

We had to take advantage of the glorious winter wonderland we had been blessed with. So after another morning of cooking and baking we went to the local sledding hill. Conor went to the movies with a friend and Grandma and Grandpa decided to rest at home. They missed out! It was snowing huge flakes the whole time we were there, it was magical. Josie was really brave and climbed a giant hill and blasted a million miles an hour down it. We watched some crazies go down some steep stuff with big jumps and we soaked up the moment. We raced each other to the bottom and we got our exercise trudging back up the hill lots of time.  Another memory that I will cherish.  Love spending time outside with my family.  After we had our fill we headed up for Christmas eve traditions!  Chili, homemade bread, calls to santa tracker, our special Christmas eve book, PJ's and lots of excited little ones.  

Almost here!

We got a lot of snow just in time for Christmas vacation! Grandma and Grandpa Nielsen arrived and we are ready to party! The kids spent hours in the snow building forts and snowmen, Conor loved trying out the new to us snow blower.  We started eating lots of Christmas goodies, and we were especially impressed with this enormous box of chocolates from a piano student.  We had no trouble polishing this box off.  After a little more baking, we took the family ice-skating.  We skated for a few hours and then we went to see the lights at River Front Park get some good eats at Panera and then we checked out this breath taking tree full of lights.  I didn't want to leave.  Thanks to the person who took the time to put these lights up for us to enjoy.   

2nd Annual Gingerbread build

It's official...the gingerbread build off is a tradition at the Kellogg house. This year we invited the Bastian family, the Osmun's, the Gobbles, the Rencher's, and the Wilson's.  15 pre-made gingerbread houses lots of candy and 5 batches of frosting.  We had a crazy house for a few hours but it is all worth it. 

December

Christmas means decorating the tree and getting out the nativities, school music programs, band concerts, decorating the tree, visiting Santa, going downtown to the Davenport Christmas tree in elegance show and Christmas stories and puzzles.  Oh and some ski days.  It finally snowed and we headed to 49 to get some time on the slopes. 

-These cute little elves decorated the tree all by themselves!

-Josie had a small speaking part in her program

-Josie and Emma after the program

-downtown at the mall with the GIANT tree

-Telling Santa what we hope he brings us!

-Our traditional Christmas puzzle-we got this one down

-It snowed!  We managed to get in a few ski days before Christmas this year

Let the Christmas fun begin!!

We were able to head out to Coeur d'Alene for our annual day after Thanksgiving Christmas parade with the Wilson's. We capped off the night with some Texas Road House.
I had to include this picture of the Christmas lights on our house.  Lincoln kept asking Kevin when our Christmas lights were going to go up on our house and Kevin finally decided to indulge the 5 yr old in the house!  Time to write our letters to Santa.  We can feel the excitement at our house!!!