Christmas in Missouri

So....I was honestly expecting a pretty awful experience driving down to Missouri. Our trip back from Missouri to Wisconsin last time was not fun and I was definitely not looking forward to this day. I tried to think ahead and be super prepared and though I'm sure it didn't really make the difference....the trip down was good! The kids both immediately fell asleep and we cruised on to Iowa City, such a fun drive that we used to make all the time:) The rest of the trip went well, Collin didn't cry until about Jefferson City, which is less than an hour out. I climbed in the back and was able to keep him entertained, he was clearly just bored, no wonder!

We just unpacked and ate and relaxed that night, Ron was on call and Laurie was arriving the next morning. Monday was busy with everyone arriving! We don't get to see Laurie often and it had been since March! Kate was super excited too and we spent about 15 minutes waiting by the windows for them to arrive:)

Collin exploring Gma and Gpa's:)

Having fun!

Waiting for Aunt Laurie...

After some playing, we got ready for the neighborhood cocktail hour hosted at Ron and Bobbi's. There was lots of great food, catching up and a puzzle:) Kate has been to enough of these that she is no longer shy but trying to pull the women away to play! Possibly, the highlight of Monday was listening to Laurie, Dave and Kate lobby to open gifts that night:) I obviously like to open as well, but I like to watch them squirm more:) As it should be, Kate was allowed to open one (that she could sleep with that night) and the rest of us had to wait. 

Tuesday was Christmas! We opened our stockings while Collin slept - funny, Kate was able to help with that:) We debated when to shower, actually that debate happened every day - don't you love vacations?! After properly showering and making some cookies, we convened by the tree - new location. It was fun to have it downstairs this year, near the fireplace. Kate was supposed to be the elf but was kind of distracted at times:) So I tried to help out. I still love handing out gifts, honestly - I really, really love it. It is so fun to give gifts! I love the moment right before someone opens and I hope they are going to love it...what a geek, I know. My children will be begging Gma to let them hand out gifts and I'll be elbowing them out of the way, so I can do it...okay, I'll work on that.

Kate slept in a tent upstairs so Laurie could have her room back:)
She loved it!

Another sweet Kate & Gpa moment while opening stockings:)

Making spritz cookies before we open gifts - I only ate 3/4 of what they made.
Seriously.

I love Christmas, always have appreciated it and all the traditions that go along with it. I treasure my childhood memories. Everything from frosting cookies at Gma Rosendahl's when we had a snow day and had to stay home from school, to bundling up to go sledding (anyone else have their parents and grandparents put bread sacks over their socks? No? Just us?) shopping in Decorah, switching parents and trying to hide all the gifts from one another in the same car, running around and playing like crazy with all my cousins in the basement at Gma and Gpa's, I could go on and on. 

However. It truly rivals those memories to be able to give them to your own children. Dave and I are an enthusiastic kind of couple:) As a younger couple (ugh, that is fun to write:), we loved getting together at Christmas, but oh my goodness...to watch your kids open gifts, play with the toys together, light up when talking about Santa...yup. I think this might be better. 

Well, who knew we just needed to put some presents in front of Collin to get him to crawl!

This little guy had fun cruising around

Aww, love this. They were so good.

Giant Chew Toy Elmo!! JK - but that is everything these days for Collin

The gift giving was wonderful and we still had much of the day to play with everything:) Bobbi was super smart and had made ahead a bunch of meals, so we had some yummy white chicken chili, played some bags and the gals (Bobbi, Laurie and I) worked on one of the two puzzles we completed during the week.

It was in the 60s at the beginning of the week!

Grandma and Kate playing with a new toy

Wednesday brought some shopping (Dave and I were able to go without the kids - hallelujah! what a treat:) we did some damage at Marshall's with Laurie and then hit Target, but needed to get back to go to church. We got the kiddos dressed up (oh my gosh...precious) and went to Ron and Bobbi's church's Wednesday Advent service. The kids behaved, the songs were good, the sermon was awesome - what a joy. Dave and I really try to keep Kate aware of what we are celebrating and why we have Christmas and all the other traditions (Santa, stockings, etc) She's pretty intelligent and on top of us talking about it, she goes to a parochial preschool....so,she is keeping Jesus as the reason for the season:) I had...kind of made a big deal about dressing up because I wanted to get some amazing photos of everyone, so I'll chalk it up to sleep deprivation brain that as soon as we returned home, I jumped into pajamas and Dave and I got Collin into pjs and ready for bed. He hadn't slept yet and we were so focused on getting him down. I came out to the living room and saw everyone still dressed up. Crap! Collin had refused to go down, and we didn't put him back into his sweater:( But I threw my sweater over my pajama pants and took some pics. We never got a whole family pic during the week! Good grief!

Thursday brought more shopping for Dave and I and then we took Kate to her very first movie in the movie theater! We had thought about it in Decorah after Thanksgiving, but the day was just too full and it got bumped. But we made it to the 4 p.m. show of Frozen with Aunt Laurie as well. So much fun for all of us! We were, literally, the only ones that went to that showing and we got all the snacks and enjoyed the movie. (I had no idea how nordic it was!! And the message was good. Love it.) Bonus? It was just starting to snow as we made our way to the van in the parking lot. Yeah.

Friday, Dave and I snuck out to shop (once again) very specifically for a new watch for him. It had snowed and the roads were just terrible by Missouri standards:) Not Wisconsin standards. We braved the trace of snow (kidding, a little more than a trace) and got him a new watch. Then, when back home, we all enjoyed watching Dave and Laurie playing Just Dance and some sports game on Ron's playstation...priceless and I have videos for bribery at a future date.....Kate also did a kids dance version which was cute and I foresee a LOT of this in the coming years - awesome! (Ahem - I also did a little bit....archery and bowling, just barely besting my hubby:) 

Friday night, we were invited down to Rich and Robin's house (friends that are like Dave's aunt and uncle) for a neighborhood shindig..these people are so generous, fun and make really good food; a second family for the Lenninger's, they are a big part of everyone's lives. They deep-fried a turkey, Bobbi brought ham rolls and potatoes, that was just the beginning of the food. We had signature cocktails, food, Kate did some little puzzles, we ate and then to everyone's delight, Robin sat down to play piano while we all sang Christmas songs!! Kate sat right next to her and just soaked it all up. Collin cried at first (Dave singing was too loud?) he enjoyed the rest of it and tried to join in at times:) It was very sweet, felt nostalgic and was a wonderful way to really get in the Christmas spirit. 

This time, she didn't touch the piano. Just listened and sang!

We left the next morning and due to good packing ahead of time, we hit the road at a decent hour, 10:30-11 a.m.? The kids did well again, I think Kate fell asleep before we turned off their street:) We grabbed some lunch in Jefferson City (first city) and we got Kate some food, though she was sleeping. When she kind of stirred, I gave her some food. She was excited for it, but fell back asleep while holding it! Our children never do this, it was so cute. We had some challenging diaper changes, some fussing but we made it back just fine! Much earlier than I had prepared for, so that was spectacular. What a trip!

I don't have all our pictures sorted and uploaded yet, check out our December album soon for everything...