We started our celebration early when Mike's parents and brother arrived in Omaha on Tuesday night. The boys were absolutely thrilled to see their Mema and Pepa and didn't leave poor Shane alone all night - apparently they realized quickly he was someone who would wrestle and play rough with them. Wed. Mike had to work most of the day, so our plans were changed slightly instead of heading out to the lunch we ordered pizza - which the boys only picked at. The other fun thing for the boys were the surprises that kept appearing every little bit from Grandma and Grandpa's suitcase! They thought that was pretty neat. I was glad they were not asking for surprises...not sure how we will curb that when it happens! We got some of the prep work done for dinner on Thursday on Wed. as well. We also got to decorate the Christmas tree and get decorations out and up. It was early even for me, but we'd be gone for the weekend and will celebrate our family Christmas a bit early this year. The boys loved their new ornaments from my parents Batman and Superman and had a hard time with the fact that they were ornaments and not to play. Mike and I really did most of the decorating, which was okay. We also were able to take our family Christmas picture Wed. night.
Thursday was a great day of family and friends. Matt and Sara joined us with their gang for dinner of our untraditional turkey (we deboned part of it and had it in a brine) and bread (we did garlic bread) though we did have homemade stuffing (a first and a good use for a bad batch of bread I had made a week before and stuff in the freezer with plans for breadcrumbs). Dinner was lots of fun and we had way too much food of course. Things were only slightly crazy with 2 babies, 2 toddlers and a preschooler to make life interesting.
Friday we headed to Halstad for the family gathering to celebrate Mike's grandparents' 50th anniversary. The drive up couldn't have gone better - even with the DVD player in the van not working all the kids did wonderful. We had dinner with the "immediate" family on Friday night and had a little room in the back of the restuarant that allowed the boys to play and get some wiggles out. Addison ate lots and otherwise was being held by all the family that had waited to meet her.
Saturday started with breakfast at the hotel and then some play time in the pool for the boys and us, Addison sat with Grandpa on the side of the pool and watched the fun until she'd had enough and fell asleep. We headed to the church in Halstad for lots of pictures and while I expected complete meltdowns by all three kids was surprised and the boys were able to be mostly cooperative for the first few sets of pictures they were in. After that we resorted to out and out bribery with Skittles for Josh. Noah when we were taking the "big" family picture decided he would rather sit on the pew then join us, and then playfully was being chased to join the rest of us when he met a pew head on - the pew did not budge at all. Mike rushed over to him and he wanted Daddy and then Mommy and Daddy again and the proclaimed he needed a doctor - which in fact he did. We made it to the ER and he ended up not requiring stitches but did need dermabond to glue the split on his head back together. After returning to the anniversary party he played like nothing had happened unless he was telling someone about his crash. We really did have a great time visiting and seeing family - though boy I never feel like I relax while in a setting like that, just wanting to make sure the kids are well and not under foot or bothering anyone. They were all very good though and enjoyed the playroom at the church for the day.
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