Home again, home again, jiggity jig...

We are home from being home, strange how home can be in so many places, huh?

Well, before we left, we visited Macy's in downtown Minneapolis. They had a fun little display called "A Day in the Life of an Elf", you walked though and they had little mechanical displays that moved around. My favorite was this one called flight school. The reindeer moved up and down. I thought it was funny.

Then we visited Santa, and I think Macy's will be our only Santa from now on. I understand why it inspired a movie. They were so good about it, the kids went into a room to meet him, the other people waited outside, and Tanner was so enchanted by him. They let him stay and talk to him for about 5 minutes, and Tanner explained that we would be gone and asked if he could find us at Nana's house in Idaho. It was really sweet, I was surprised that he was so comfortable with him. Anyway, it was a great experience for him. Kate was just grumpy the whole time, oh well.

This is Tanner's graham cracker house, we hot glued it together because I didn't have enough powdered sugar, so the frosting is really runny, I guess it is a warm Christmas for this house...

Then we left early (really early) the next morning... Kate didn't want to be up yet, but at least there was a McDonald's next to out gate and the guy gave her a little toy when I only bought an apple juice.

The kids did really well traveling, I was relieved, along with every other person on the flight.

Tanner and Kate gave an impromptu performance on Christmas Eve...

They are so talented...

Christmas morning was great, Tanner was very happy that Santa found us.

Here is one of his favorite presents...

and Kate playing with boxes instead of hers... notice the swimming suit she had to wear for the occasion, although it is inside out and upside down...

Tyler took Tanner out for a ride one day...
Then we had New Years!!!! Cheers!

Well, I will get to the rest of our adventure next time, but I am sure you are tired of looking at my pictures and I am tired of putting them on here. So until then, I hope life treats you well, and thanks for stopping by!

Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas...

All our bags are packed, we are ready to go... I hope you know that I was singing that too.

Well friends, we are off. Heading back to the homeland for the holidays. The kids are very excited and Tanner has earned enough stickers on his chore chart to get his present for the journey. So, hopefully Santa finds the note and can get our presents to us elsewhere... wink, wink.

We as a family hope that you all have a glorious holiday season, and that you all get what you deserve (good or bad... hahaa.) Be good. Be safe. Remember the true reason of the season.

Baby it's cold outside...

Well, we did it kids, we made it all the way up to 0 degrees outside. Yup, that isn't what I call warm weather. But really, who wants warm weather? Christmas is a comin' and I want snow. Well, after this weekend, I don't want anymore, but I do want it to snow in Idaho so that we can have some serious ski time. Allow me to share why we haven't left our building for 3 days.

This is mid storm...

A few hours later

The drifts covered one windows...

And this is what it looks like today, if only they had mountains, this would be awesome.

Fortunatly Santa came to see us a few hours before the snow started.
Then we decorated gingerbread men and made little pinecone Christmas trees. It was fun, Tanner thought Santa was pretty cool, but he didn't tell him what he wanted. Oh well, a lump of coal it is!


Tis the season, be good.

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I think I will use a Christmas song phrase for every post this month...

Well, here is our Christmas tribute this year. We didn't bring our tree, decorations, ornaments, anything really. But I did bring our stockings. So we made a tree out of wrapping paper and I let Tanner decide what shape and colors the decorations would be. We had a good time making it, and Kate has a good time un-making it. We enjoy redecorating it as we come across the makeshift ornaments around the house.

We have also had a few snow storms come through. They have each dumped a decent amount of snow. It is expected to start snowing again around 11:00 tonight. That is right kids, our weather people are so good that they can predict the time of the snowfall. It makes me laugh because they are fairly accurate, I think it is the lack of mountains that helps. Anyway, Tanner and Kate (really just Tanner) wanted to go out in the snow, so we pulled out all of our snow gear and went out. It was fun. And cold. As it turned out, through all of my careful packing, I only packed one of Kate's gloves, so she had to wear mine. Not to worry, we have since found replacement gloves.

Tanner loves to build "ice sculptures" in the snow. This is his tunnel through the mountain "ice sculpture".

"It goes all the way through, see?"

He was so proud, as was I...

I am glad that my children enjoy the snow, because it is here to stay. But I am not complaining, it is just getting me excited for Christmas, and with Christmas, we get to go home and go skiing, see family, and open presents. Probably in that order... just kidding Nana and Grandma, we will come and see you long enough to drop the kids off! Wink. Wink.

The End

Do you see what I see?

I have felt, for some time now, that Kate and Bill Murray share a common feature:

Her hair is seriously out of control serveral times a day. I love the little wings she gets over her ears. And I also love "What About Bob?".

This, that, and the other thing

I think I have informed you of Kate's obsession with accessories... you know the rule about taking one thing off before you head out the door? Well, it doesn't apply to her.

This is the Tuesday night crowd... Alisha and I take turns making each other dinner on Tuesdays because the honeys have late class. It is always enjoyable when she cooks. Can you tell these kids like each other?

Kate also loves her swimming suit. She wears it all the time. I usually put it under her clothes, because it doesn't always match...

We walked across the Stone Arch Bridge. It use to be a railroad bridge, now it is a pedestrian bridge. It was cool.

Kate clawed Tanner's face... nice little sister, huh?
My children may or may not have received my dancing genes... I promise, you will never see me dance long enough to find out...

As for Thanksgiving, we spent it with some of the other MHA families, it was fun. Tanner has been asking for a gi-normous dinner ever since. I just try to make whatever we are eating dramatic in some way to make up for the lack of gi-norous-ness. So I hope you had a fantastic Turkey day, and that you all ate way too much! And a bit of a late Happy Birthday to Evan/Dad/Grandpa. Hooray! Peace out!

The Minnesota Daily

Tanner loves to pick up the paper whenever we are in the office... they aren't much to read, but they make great paper hats...

Kate hanging out, constantly distracted...

Tanner playing football with dad... great follow-through kiddo!
Short and sweet, just like my favorite kids... wait... short, yes... sweet, hmmm...