Party On!

This was a short but busy week since the last update went up through last Monday. We had many preparations to do before leaving to go to Ohio for Christmas.

On Tuesday, we went to Kindermusik, where we met up with Lisa and Dominic as well as Emily and Brooklyn. It was a super cold day, but after the music class, Keira, Soren and I decided to browse the tree and nativity display in Kellogg Park just down the street from the class. The trees are decorated by different groups, companies, and families, for many reasons. It is always sad to see the trees that are done by a family in memorial of a child. There are always several each year. It makes me really grateful that my two children are healthy, and I hope that this continues.

Here is a photo of Keira lining up clementines. She won't eat them, she just likes to play with them. Soren was also being particularly cute, and I took a couple videos of him. The second is rather long, and may not make it to the blog. It is taking too long to load to you tube.

On Wednesday, we had a decent amount of snow. Keira lucked out and got to play in the snow because we had nothing to do and Soren took a sizable nap. We thought about trying to go to the Wednesday storytime, but did not make it. In hindsight, we probably should have tried harder because Friday's was cancelled due to snow. We did have a blast in the snow. It was powder, light and fluffy, so we could only make really small snowmen. I could form small balls, but it was easiest to find chunks from where they cleared the walkways for the bodies.

After spending the morning in the snow, we headed over to the mall for some last minute preparations and some indoor playtime.

Thursday was a low key day. We ran errands for the morning because we had to purchase food for Ryan to take to his work potluck and our Church Christmas parties, both on Friday. We didn't want to buy too much since we would be leaving this weekend. It always surprises me how much we spend when we are just making a couple dishes!

Here are our stockings at our house. We don't have a chimney or fireplace, so the stairs have to do.

On Friday, we had an insane amount of snow. I moved the car midmorning in hopes that the plow would get my spot done during the day. It snowed continually all day, and by lunchtime, I was going crazy. I made the mistake of telling Keira we would go to McDonald's for lunch (her favorite), and got the car stuck in the snow trying to move it from its temporary space. I eventually got it unstuck and made it to McDonald's, getting out of our court was the hardest part, but Ryan was sure I was crazy. When I returned home, the car was stuck again in the previous spot, to sit until Ryan got it unstuck on Saturday. Ryan's work potluck was lightly attended, so we had some leftovers to enjoy. Surprisingly, we still had our church Christmas party in the evening. The roads in Oakland County (where we live) were plowed and clean, unlike those in Wayne County. I guess our higher taxes are doing something! It was a good time, and I am glad we were able to still have it.

Saturday was a very busy day. Here are some attempts to get Keira and Soren in front of the tree together.


Ryan had a haircut in Ann Arbor, so we all got up to go to it so that we could stop at the Dixboro General Store on the way home. The store is a great store for decorations for year round holidays, and it smells awesome! They have a nice set up to visit with Santa. They sometimes have a reindeer, but we missed it this weekend. He has a little room in the rear of the store with a couch and you can take your own pictures, so it is free. Keira was a bit apprehensive at first, be eventually we were able to get her to sit with Ryan on the couch with Santa. Soren was great, as expected for his age.

Once we got back and the kids were napping, I found out that Santa was headed our way, and would have a reindeer with him at Oberweis Dairy, just down the street from us! We were able to stop there really quickly and see Santa again, this time with Blitzen!

After the quick stop to see Santa again, we were off to Dominic's 2nd Birthday Party. We had a really fun time with Lisa, EJ, Dominic, and their family and friends. Both Keira and Soren really enjoyed the party, as well as the fantastic party favors.

Afterwards, it was time to finish our final packing for the trip to Ohio. We were up late Saturday getting as much ready as we could, and left for Ohio after church. Ryan did an amazing job packing the car to fit all of the necessities for traveling with 2 small children AND bringing Christmas with us. We were fortunate to locate and borrow a stroller that accepted our carseat for Soren, and my parents have a small one already for Keira, because we had no room left for those. The next post will detail our trip to Ohio.