Merry Christmas!

This week we celebrated the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We had a lot of fun with Ryan off of work, and went down to see my family in Ohio prior to Christmas, and drove back on Christmas Eve to have our first Christmas morning at our home since 2006.

On Monday, I got up super early to go spinning with Cristina. She teaches the 6am class at Botsford, and it was a great way to get the morning started. That afternoon, evening, we attended a birthday party for our friends, Lisa and Erik's son Dominic. Keira and Soren had a blast.






On Tuesday, we started the day with a haircut for me! We after that, we drove down to my parents house. We had a good drive and no new snow for it. Keira and Soren were very excited to see Grandma and Grandpa.


We went to the Columbus Zoo to see the lights. This time around, it wasn't as cold, and we went early. We also spent a lot of time in the buildings. There were several sets of nocturnal animals that we got to see in action. The huge bats were incredible. They were very difficult to photograph, but they were HUGE and had a wingspan of 6 feet!

We finished off the evening with dinner at the Claddagh restaurant. My parents know the members of the band, Hat Trick, that were playing that evening. Soren LOVED it. My dad made a special request for the "Wheels on the Bus" and the kids were so excited to hear it. It was late for the kids to be out, and having the band kept them very entertained. We were ready to leave before Soren was!




The next morning, I went on a quick run in the snow, and then we went to Easton to see the trains there. Sarah went with us. They were a huge hit.


After visiting the trains many times, we had a great lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Keira enjoying opening and eating the edamame appetizer. I feel like I never know what she will or won't eat.





She also worked on baking cookies with my mom once we got back, and Ryan and I went out for some browsing. That evening Sarah, David, Kristin, Ryan, and I went to see the Black Swan. It was a pretty intense movie.

The next day, my dad had off work, so we went to the Franklin Park Conservatory to see the it decorated for Christmas. The highlight for the children was the rotating train that went around Cinderella's castle. It was made from entirely living/plant materials, and was surrounded by lots of other fairytale story characters. They also had gingerbread houses made to look like Currier and Ives paintings, as well as houses submitted to a contest. We enjoyed walking through the many different climates they had set up. Soren loved the fountain in the palm room, and was beginning for change from Ryan and my dad, because he knows that guys have change in their pockets. He was pretty cute. Soren loved the natural tunnel outside made from a fallen log. We enjoyed the glass blowing demonstration, but Keira and Soren weren't so thrilled with it.

Once we got, Keira finished up decorating cookies with my mom, and we had our big dinner that evening with my family.


The next morning, we had a big breakfast of lots of fancy pancakes (chocolate, banana nut, and regular) with many syrups and fruit, eggs, sausage, and bacon with Sarah and David before opening presents. Soren loved his mustang, and Keira was very excited about her new barbies. It was great to spend the morning with my family. Both could not wait to get home to open their legos and playmobile sets.

We drove back to Michigan, and spent a few hours doing some last minute grocery shopping to get us through until Monday as well as get the food we needed for Christmas day. Soren napped as Keira got her sets opened.

That evening, we went over to Kris and Linda's where we awaited Tyler and Minde's arrival from New York. Once everyone was there, we played songs with handbells and Linda read Christmas stories to the grandchildren in their pjs.





We got home and spread some reindeer food on the lawn, and the kids went to sleep. I made an apple pie before bed. They actually slept in pretty late for them, and we were able to have our own Christmas morning. Soren was so excited that Santa had eaten the cookie and milk we put out. We also got out our pyramids and lit them.

We then drove over to Greg and Ellyn's for a breakfast of ebilskivers, quiche, fruit, homemade egg nog, and hot cocoa. Keira and Soren enjoyed playing with their cousin's new toys. Lleyton got a shelby cobra car, but Soren had to keep a close eye on his mustang, as both boys liked both cars.





Keira made this nativity craft from stickers.

We went home for some downtime so that Soren could nap and Keira could have more time with her toys. We also made our cheesy potato dish for the dinner, and Keira ate 3 bowls of corn flakes as we made it. We had Christmas dinner with everyone that evening, complete with Christmas Crackers. The kids wore their crowns for dinner.


After dinner was finished, we opened presents with Ryan's family. Soren was thrilled with his lego school bus, and Keira got a horse and new Madame Alexander doll to go with it. Ryan and I received a new Canon Rebel camera, which I am still in the process of figuring out. All the pics from this post are from our other camera. The big hit of the evening was Chase's batcave, which all the children enjoyed playing with. We headed home. Ryan busily opened toys while the kids bathes so that Keira and Soren could play with their newest toys a bit before going to bed.

On Sunday, we woke up fairly late for 9am church, but since everyone had bathed the night before, we managed to still get there 5 minutes early. I tried to take a few pictures of Keira and Soren in their church clothes with the new camera, but since they were really anxious to play and eat, I just used the other one.

We had a very restful afternoon and evening. Soren and I both slept for a really long time, and Keira watched both of her new movies, Tinkerbell and Beauty and the Beast. We had a quite evening once Soren woke up and they both played with their new toys the rest of the evening.


We are looking foward to spending more time with Tyler and Minde this week while they are in town.

Merry Christmas!