Christmas Sleepover with Their Cousins

Elsie ended up getting really sick the weekend we were supposed to go to Grandma and Grandpa Zielicke’s for Christmas. That is when Alstan and Elsie usually exchange their gifts with their cousins. Since we had a sleepover planned for Christmas break, we made that into a second Christmas celebration so the kids could exchange their gifts.

Christmas Morning

Tough gift to open!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Hot cocoa and a movie to start the evening!

Alstan and Elsie exchanged their gifts to each other. 

“What are Alstan and Adam doing?” you might ask. Doesn’t it seem obvious; they are looking for Alstan’s phone. Yes, Alstan lost his phone inside the couch. It fell down between the armrest and the seat. After removing the bottom cloth and tipping the entire couch around a bit, Adam was able to retrieve the phone.

Alstan’s Winter Concert

Here are a couple of photos from Alstan’s concert.

Elsie’s Holiday Band Concert

Elsie did great at her first performance. 

Finishing Up

The weekend goes so fast, but we end with lots of cookies for all!

Day 2

Ugly sweater day for cookie cut outs and candlelight shopping!

Cookie Making Weekend

We started off our weekend with decorating a gingerbread display. It was Alstan’s year to choose what kind of display we did. He chose Jurassic Park. It seemed like the kids had a good time decorating… when they weren’t too busy eat The candy.

Christmas Tree Time!

Setting up the tree gets easier every year.

Happy Thanksgiving

The kids made the traditional pumpkin pie this year. Grandpa Zielicke gave Elsie a couple of baking pumpkins, so she used some of the purée for our pie.

Babysitting!

Today we were asked to babysit the girls at Aunt Nette’s house. This looks about right!

State Street Stroll

Dad bought some glasses online, so we had to head to State Street to get them adjusted. He ended up returning them, but it gave us a good reason to stroll through a couple of the shops. What beautiful weather we had too… switched from snow to sleet and back again a few times.

Getting Ready for the Holiday Season

I know it is early, but there is not another nice weekend in the forecast, so lights go up today. It seems there is a bit of a friendly battle about when we can start playing holiday music in our house. They made an agreement to only play it while setting up the lights and the lights cannot be turned on until after Thanksgiving.

Happy Halloween

Carving Pumpkins

Tonight we did Alstan’s favorite Halloween tradition: carving pumpkins! We almost didn’t get this one in this year, but we made it before Halloween.

Fall Harvest/Halloween Party

Elsie spent weeks planning for her favorite Halloween tradition: a Harvest/Halloween party with her cousins. Alstan is always game for the idea too!

MPMS Pancake Breakfast Concert

Middle School pancake breakfast with a concert in the morning…

followed by a wonderful hike at Governor Dodge. We have really had some beautiful fall weather our last few weekends!