Lenninger Family Christmas

Time to buckle up and recap our Christmas this year! How is that possible? I feel like we had so many celebrations this year and that means a busy, busy December, but one filled with lots of family, goodies, presents, laughs, special moments and love. I can't tell you how many times Dave and I looked at each other with a "I don't want to forget this moment" kind of feeling. I'm sure he wasn't close to crying like I seem to be all the time but having kiddos this age sure does make the holidays pretty magical! And stressful. I'm not going to even pretend it was all rainbows and sunshine (oh, sunshine how we've missed you!), we can blame my hormones a bit for definitely feeling overwhelmed at times and extremely exhausted but I hope that didn't show too much:) 

We normally spend Dave's week off in December in Missouri at his parents and hope to have his sister Laurie join us there. It is always tricky with Dave's week, Ron's week off and Laurie's work schedule to coordinate and this year proved no different. The plan was better to have Laurie fly into Wisconsin and so we hosted up here! Turns out my docs would not have loved me being 9-10 hours away, so that was a bonus:) We had (Dave, Laurie and I) hoped for a wonderful white Christmas up here with lots of playing in the snow. But instead we had warm temps, rain and then just sleety, weird and cool weather. Not a white Christmas... (it was Dec. 14-21).

Laurie and Dave taking the kids for a walk in the winter wonderland. Or wait....

Ron and Bobbi arrived on Sunday, Dec. 14 and stayed for a week. Laurie arrived Friday, Dec. 19 and left on Dec. 23. It worked! It was nice to have a whole week with Dave's folks, it is so nice not to feel rushed or like the time is short, especially when making that drive. However, the week was rather full of commitments. Dave was supposed to be off all week, but because of switching and demands at work, he ended up working three pretty long days out of the five:(  Kate had school and her Christmas concert, my van was taken into the shop to get fixed, there was still some shopping to be done and a doctor's appointment! 

Gma and Gpa L had some BIG packages for the kiddos this year...

Their new HugglePod - an early gift so they could enjoy it:)
I'll have to take another picture to explain what this is!

Ready for her first school concert!

Knew her songs, did all the actions, Dave and I thought she seemed too old! She's in the middle in this pic...

Our view and the huge group that was singing! She was way over on the left

For Kate's first concert, I was a little nervous being new to the school and whole process. I had never even been to the gym before! Thankfully, Kate knows everything:) Dave ended up on call that day - grrrr...and we knew Collin would not do well at all, so Grandma stayed home with him and Ron and I took Kate. The gym was small and packed - yuck. We dropped Kate at the stage (4K & 5K sang first) and found a couple seats. I texted Dave about five minutes before it started and he was there! I was SO happy. He made his way over to us and managed a seat with us. Kate's group did three songs and she did great. It was a very large group and for the first (many!) seconds we couldn't find her! She just looked so big. The best part was after her group was done, they have a parent come and pick up the child from the stage to sit back with them. Well, we grabbed Kate and got out of there! Ron and I weren't there for more than 30 minutes - that's pretty awesome! We were able to go home and have a normal night instead of keeping Kate up late and sitting in a stinky gym through endless performances by kids I don't know. That fun will come later:) 

We were also able to add in all the fun Christmas stuff like doing puzzles (two:), baking cookies and watching holiday movies. Everyone had a good amount of cuddle time with the kids and some even got naps:) 

Baking cookies!

Playing with an early gift

Fun apps with Gma & Gpa

Lots of dancing and playing with boxes

We even made it down to the Dells to see a live Mary Poppins dinner theater! So much fun.

Photo op (in terrible light) We were dressed up and loved the show!

It's a long story, but Collin did join us. He didn't sit great during the meal, but did amazing during the show!

Our little lady. Still perfecting our princess table manners, but she did just fine. And she loved it:)

After the show, we got to meet Mary Poppins!! 

When Laurie arrived, we had our traditional yummy Christmas meals and opened gifts! (should be noted: Dave waited very patiently all week to open gifts:)

A swim hat from Gma/Gpa and a new bus from Aunt Lou

They LOVED their swim goggles and wore them for a long time while we opened!

This man LOVES to put on hats and shoes. Anyone's. Here he is modeling Aunt Lou's new boots!

So many new fun things to play with!
(HugglePod hanging under stairs in the background)

We did have some rather sick family members for the week:(  Collin had a runny nose the day before people arrived. He sometimes coughed at night, but it stayed pretty much at a yucky nose. Bobbi arrived and a day or two later was in the midst of a nasty cold. Since she is a mom, she powered through and still delivered amazing food and baked cookies and played, but at times had almost no voice and I'm sure felt miserable. Laurie also informed us she was sick in New York at the time, went to the doc and got some meds but seemed to have it in full swing when she arrived:(  She also powered through and didn't seem to let it affect her too much, she still helped me SO much with the kids - thank you! The rest of us somehow stayed well through it all.

On Laurie's last day, I had another doctor appointment and she needed to be taken to the airport in Madison. It was Dec. 23 and I also needed to get a few items for Dave (from the kids) and he was on call all day. So....we took the adventure head on and left the house early that morning (it did snow that night/morning, just enough to make our roads a little slippery:) and we all went to my clinic in the Dells. Laurie watched Collin in the waiting room and Kate came in with me. All is well - Baby's heart rate was super high and was moving all over. She said it was good to see the variability with movement. Belly measuring right on, BP was good. I just get to come in and say hi each week until Babes is here! 

36 weeks!

When we came out, Collin was already a little over it all (great!) and we tried to decide how much to do next. Laurie didn't leave until late in the afternoon, so we grabbed some coffee and headed to the outlet mall to try and knock out the presents. I gave her the option of taking her straight to Madison and let her sit somewhere and read until her flight. In relative quiet. But she was brave and said she'd help with the kids in the mall. After getting the giant fire truck double stroller that is impossible to push/maneuver, we headed into literally the first store we saw:) We had great luck there and Laurie was laughing at how efficient I was. Collin was not in the shopping mood and so he ate a whole treat from Starbucks while Kate and I grabbed whatever we thought Dave would remotely like:) Laurie found a couple good deals and then when we left, I made the decision NOT to pass the ride-on toy things in the concourse of that mall and just went across to the other store, bought one more thing for Dave and called it good:) We then decided it was best to just get to Madison. On the way, her flight was delayed a number of hours. So we changed plans again, drove all over Madison, found a place to eat and then decided to go to the zoo to kill time (free zoo)! It would have been a really great idea had it not started to spit out and get colder and if more of the animals were outside. But Laurie and the kids were great troopers. We did see the lion, some monkeys, seals, penguins, goats, giant tortoises, flamingos, etc. 

Yes, we went to the zoo on Dec. 23

We hated dropping Laurie off at the airport but appreciated all our time with her. Kate was pretty emotional/cranky the whole ride back. The weather was a bit yucky and the interstate was super crowded. It was a very long ride for me:) Kate started sobbing in the back about halfway home that she "just wants to be home" and she wanted Daddy. Collin didn't sleep but didn't fuss too much. Dave was stuck at the hospital again pretty late, but the end was in sight - Christmas Eve the next day! I really love the traditions we have with the Lenninger side and the fact that we were all together - what a wonderful week with family!