Christmas in Virigina

Every time I look at a map of the US, I am still surprised by how far east Wisconsin is. We are only 15 hours from New York City, 12 hours from Washington DC, and 15 hours from Williamsburg, VA. So when all of Paul's other siblings decided to visit his sister who lives there, we joined in the craziness and headed east. Gratefully, roads were good since we left after the storms hit, and we took a southern route through Louisville, KY. 

The week was full of all sorts of fun...Christmas Eve we went to the Yankee Candle store so the girls could sit on Santa's lap.

Later that evening we went to colonial Williamsburg where they have this awesome celebration as they light up the Christmas tree.

 

 We were all given candles which the kids loved...especially since the mild wind would occasionally blow them out. They loved helping light their cousins' candles and sharing the fire.

Uncle Michael read everyone a Christmas book or two.

My mother in law made these little elf dolls for everyone to open on Christmas Eve. My girls love them.

 With the children nestle in their beds, the adults had a party of their own...a root beer party. I don't know why, but Iversons are obsessed with root beer, calling it the celestial drink. We all brought some fancy root beers from around the country and battled out which was best.

Milwaukee's own Sprecher was in the top 3, along with Abida, and another one I can't remember. Paul is glad we live in a place were when can buy Sprecher at Costco :)

Christmas morning...

The great thing about being at someone else's house for Christmas is that there are more toys for my kids to play with, but we don't have to bring them all home!

And Erika's kids got a bounce house, which was the highlight of the rest of the vacation.

Aaron and Tandy made their kids a rabbit cage, which Nora loved and guarded.

The rest of the trip was spent having fun with cousins. The girls always ask when we are going back to Virigina.

Baby Graham!

Little Daniel explores the fridge...

 And no visit to Williamsburg is complete without visiting Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg

  

And Erika's fam has an awesome New Year's tradition...where aliens come and decorate the tree with underwear and socks!

Thanks, Erika and company for an awesome visit!

S'Winter

Call me crazy but I love the winter. The hot chocolate. The warm sweaters. The fireplaces. The festivities. Staying indoors a lot and being more creative with my kids. Playing in the snow. I even love getting all bundled up to go outside. I can do without the slippery roads, but gratefully it's been a mild winter so far. Here's some of the fun we've had:

 Making cakes for no reason

 Even though they have a playroom, they prefer the closet

Snow time...they always want to go out when we have fresh snow, even if it's less than an inch

Yes, they are in dresses. At least they let me up leggings on them.

Niels is jealous...he just stands and watches them

Tupperware city

One day Hattie decided to "experiment" with food dye. Completely on her own, she dyed the apples all different colors, and did a decent job of not making a complete mess.

Lots of painting and other art projects

Hattie has really taken off with her writing. She made these one day after watching Winnie the Pooh. They are hard to see, but they say "Robin," "Pink" for piglet, "carrot" for Rabbit, "toy train," and "honey pot" for Pooh.

Then there's this boy who gets cuter every day. He is a master at climbing up stairs...but has yet to figure out going down. So in a tri-level house, it's REALLY hard to keep an eye on him. We need 4 gates to truly keep him safe. As much as we try to teach him, he isn't picking it up.

 Naps...he is folded over in half, but somehow is still sleeping...the flexibility of babies.

 And we often find the girls asleep together...we're glad they love each other so much.
 

Much to Paul's happiness, we have discovered a couple who is fanatical about board games as we are. During November and December, it wasn't uncommon to play games 2 or 3 times a week! We would put our kids to bed at their house (or they would put their kids to sleep at our house) and stay as long as we could stay awake! (in this picture we hired a sitter so that we could go out to dinner before playing games). This month, due to Paul's work schedule, our fanatic game playing has slowed, but we are happy to still get a game in about once a week.

And one of the most exciting things for me was an early Christmas/birthday/anniversary gift...an electric piano! I've been doing pretty well at playing almost every day, and I'm amazing at how quickly I feel like I am improving. The kids love it too and like to take a turn every day.

Next post: Christmas in Virginia!