X-Wing

Nathan, like many 6-year old boys is super into Legos right now.  For Christmas he asked for several different types of Legos...fortunately Grammy came through and got him the much-asked-for Star Wars variety.  It's clear to see why this is called an

 X-Wing!

(beyond that I have no idea what it is:)

 We wouldn't let him take out all the pieces the night he opened it, but the next morning he ripped into and worked on it for about an hour (before we had to leave for our Christmases).  Once we returned several days later, the X-Wing was not forgotten and he spent about 4 hours finishing it up.  The box said it was for ages 7-12, and he did have some initial frustrations, but I'm proud of him for doing it on his own-excepting a question here or there (to which I was little or no help).  It's definitely the most complicated things he's made, and so far he has not wanted to take it apart, unlike his smaller sets which he will assemble and dissemble over again. 

The Type A side of me has to separate from it or I will stress about Legos going missing...after all I think there are about 800 Legos on that thing!

Way to go Nathan!

Christmas wrap-up.

So, this is going to be a Christmas "wrap-up" (pun intended, but it's still going to be long). 

We did our family Christmas (previous post) on Thursday the 20th.  Friday morning, the kids had small gifts in their stockings and then it was pack for the weekend as efficiently as you can.  Matt took Friday off of work, and though it took us all morning to pack we were on the road for the Twin Cities by 12:30 p.m.   We drove to Elk River, MN to visit the Kleins.  The kids always love to see their cousins Logan and Julia.  Friday night we had pizza and went to bed, but Saturday they were able to go sledding and that night we did a gift exchange.

 

Here are all the Thompson-side cousins:

 

 

 Nathan (6 1/2), Evelyn (8 mos), Ella (4 1/2), Logan (6...almost 7), Julia (4 1/2), Adeline (3)

 

 

 Sunday we drove to Edina, MN to celebrate Christmas with Matt's dad, grandpa, and aunt & uncle.

Here we are in the party room at the condo.  It's strange that have them be the only kids around!

 

 

 

 

Matt and his Uncle Brian. 

 

 

 Whenever they're together this is what they do.  You see how Brian's arms are crossed and Matt is holding a book.  They're sitting off by themselves and discussing great theories and/or projects they've been reading about...or constructing themselves. 

They're engineers.  They're nerds.  I love 'em.

 

Grandpa Bob. 

Who as far as I'm concerned is the most loving, caring older gentleman in the whole wide world.

 



 

Matt's favorite Christmas cookie:  Sanbakkels. 

Prepared by Aunt Jodi with love.

 



 

This is Ella's 5th Christmas...she knows what to do with a sanbakkel.

 

Nathan and Addie are yet to learn to enjoy the sanbakkel.  They only lick off the frosting.

Nathan opted for a more chocolatey treat.

 

 

More cookie time. 

 



 

Matt's dad told us we could bring treats to the Christmas dinner.  We laughed.  Jodi always brings enough treats for a small county.  Needless to say, we didn't bring treats, and no one was in want.

 

 

After dinner, we of course opened gifts.  Nathan's final gift was an accordion which was Jeff's (Matt's dad) as a child.  About a year back, Nathan told Grandpa Jeff  he had wanted an accordion his entire life (which he said at Cracker Barrel while looking at a toy accordion).  Nathan remembers saying this and was pretty excited about it!

 

Evs and Me.

The Thompsons:  Matt with his Grandpa, Dad, and children.

 



 

So, three Christmases down, three to go!

After Thompson Christmas, we drove to De Smet, SD to celebrate with my side of the family.

We arrived there about 10:00 p.m., and unfortunately during the car ride Evelyn had started to break out in hives.  Christmas Eve morning it was worse.

So, baby's first Christmas, all broke out!  It's hard to see it in the pictures, but she was pretty pathetic looking.  It was all over, even her eyes were swollen.

 



Thankfully, she wasn't bothered by it.  So, we used a little cream and moved on!

 

We are blessed that the entire Widman side is still able to get together for Christmas Eve.  It is great to have a time of year to see all my cousins, aunts, and uncles.  This year we even did an ugly sweater party.  Matt's idea was pretty good.  He didn't have an ugly sweater, so instead I stitched a squirrel to his back (if you haven't seen Christmas vacation, this isn't funny to you, but in my family this is hilarious).  To finish off the outfit, he wore his dark green wool "nursing home" pants.

 

 

Kearns'.

 

There were even prizes.  Amy won 1st prize!

 

 

Matt got 1st runner up!

His prize was a fruit cake...unfortunately I looked at the ingredient list and opted for us to not eat it:)

 

All the cousins and their spouses. 

 

 

Here we are after a change of clothes (we didn't want to wear our sweaters to church):

And then ensues the craziness of Christmas Eve. 

It may be my favorite day of the year, but every year the house seems to get a little fuller!

 

There are 10 cousins total on my side (Nathan is the oldest and Evelyn is the youngest).  Unfortunately we never got a picture of them all together.  In fact, I didn't really take any pictures at all.  Sometimes it's best to just put the camera away and enjoy the moment!

 

I did take a photo of the Santa plates though!

We are likely the only parents in America who try to teach their children the truth about St. Nicholas and have their children argue with them that Santa is indeed real and magical.  So be it I guess!

Here is Nathan's note:
"For Santa Love Nathan Lego City"

 

Ella's note:

"Santa i want a kitten"

 

The older cousins worked together to leave out some drinks, cookies, bows, candy canes, and of course, cocktail shrimp and cheese.

It was all gone in the morning, to which they exclaimed, "See, Santa does like shrimp!"

 

 

Christmas morning everyone opened their gift from Santa, and most departed to celebrate with their other families.  We had already done that, so we stayed and celebrated with a few of my mom's relatives.  My mom has been battling cancer for over a year, and though she is truly an inspiration and tough as nails, I was thankful that we were there.  My dad and I were able to handle most of the meal preparations so my mom could rest, and afterwards my aunts and I cleaned up so she could take a nap.  We kept telling her not to over do it, but it was a full weekend and I'm glad she was well enough to participate in all the celebrations.

 

Last Christmas photo opp with the kids:

 

 

 And speaking of naps, this is what Addie looked like at about 5:00 p.m. 

 

 

She transferred to the car, slept the whole way home, into her bed, and then until 8:00 the next morning. 

We did it! 

Family Christmas, Klein Christmas, Thompson Christmas, Extended Widman Christmas, Widman Christmas, & Garner Christmas...whew!

Family Christmas 2012

A few years ago the kids were so little that we never bothered to have a private family Christmas.  It probably seemed absurd to others, but we already had a lot going on adding another Christmas seemed unnecessary (after all, they wouldn't even remember it:).  However, this is our 3rd year doing our own Christmas and it is such a treasured time.  I really do believe that the kids are at a perfect Christmas age.  It is such a blessing to experience all the amazement and excitement through them.

We followed tradition and had a pizza party...we are celebrating a birthday!

 

 

Evie's first Christmas (had a "blow-out" and is in her jammies!)

 

 

Matt and I like to keep it simple with gifts.  This year, everyone received some shoes, and Nathan also got a Star Wars Legos (his current obsession) t-shirt.

Everyone helped each other open their gift...Nathan was especially willing to lend a hand.

 

Evelyn had no idea what was going on but loved the paper and boxes...and had a great time!

 

Most of their gifts that night were from Grammy.  We even got to Skype with her so she could watch them open them up.  From her, they all received some clothes, Nathan got a big Star Wars Lego set and the girls (minus Evelyn) got Lalaloopsy Dolls.  They of course loved everything!

Oh yeah...I almost forgot that we also got the kids a map (in photo below amongst the rubbage).  The kids were excited about it, even if Matt's co-workers told Matt he was lame for buying his kids a map for Christmas (it apparently is not the latest and greatest:)

 

 

Ella opening a gift from Grammy.

 

 

Following gift opening, Matt surprised me with a stainless-steel cookware set.  It definitely was a huge surprise, and I love it...thanks babe!

Then we had one more surprise for the kids.  We told them to get ready for bed, then once their pj's were on, we gave them each a ticket and told them they were riding the "Minivan Express".  It was totally a Pinterest idea I found, but it worked well.  Upon entering the Minivan Express, Matt (wearing a conductor hat of course) took their tickets and handed them some popcorn.  We then drove around Sioux Falls, mainly the Falls Park area, and took in the Christmas lights. 

As we got into the van I realized that we were taking the kids out at bed time and this had the potential to go very badly....but surprisingly everyone seemed to really enjoy it, and Evelyn even fell quietly asleep.  It may become a new tradition.



Advent

By now I'm sure it is time to start putting up my Valentine's Day decorations (not that I have any)-but first I wanted to reflect and put up some posts of our Christmas.

Advent is my favorite time of year.  I love that we can take the entire month of December and daily focus on the Christmas story.  Matt and I really want to teach our children about how God's people waited thousands of years for Jesus to be born, and now we are still in waiting, but for Jesus to return.   Every year we've done Advent candles and/or an Advent calendar with the chocolate inside.  This year we did the candles on our dinner table, but I also added a daily Advent activity where each day we opened an envelope with scripture on it.  So, each day we read a verse or two, and some days we would also open our Bibles and read larger chunks. 

The envelopes were super easy to put together.  I got the idea and the daily scriptures here.

 

 

 Since we're at the mantle, here or some other trimmings...

 (the wreath was not suppose to stay on the mantle...but it did, perhaps next year it will find a better home, afterall this also took me two Christmases to finish:)

Nothing special, just simple and when I took these we didn't have our stockings up yet.

 

 

 Maybe my most favorite Advent tradition is our "Jesus gift".  Since it is Christ's birthday, we work together to get a gift for Jesus.  Jesus said that when we serve the least of these we are serving him. So we look for either a family or person in our community or often we buy gifts through the World Vision catalog (the kids enjoy picking out a chicken, rabbit, school supplies, etc.).  This year we did a Jesus Jar (which I did not photograph...it was a Mason jar), and any extra change or money we had went into the jar.  It was fun to announce "found some money for the Jesus Jar", or ask "where should we put our change today?....Jesus Jar!".  This year we were able to bless a single mom in our community with a grocery store gift card.

Amongst the hustle and bustle of the season, it was great to have some routines to keep us anchored on Christ.-though we are definitely far from perfect and it doesn't always go swimmingly (Nathan did report that he would like his Advent calendar to involve chocolate next time) and we have lots of fun (and struggles) with gifts.  Next, I hope to share more of our Christmas Day.