Christmas and New Years!

Wow - I'm so late on this post! Surprised, not-surprised, I guess. It's going to have to be a quick, photo-heavy post - you. are. welcome. :) 

Dave and I like to have a gift opening that is just us and the kids. Normally we squeeze it in somewhere and the last couple years it has been on Christmas Eve - perfect! This year, with company arriving and Dave on call Christmas Eve, he kind of last minute said - hey, let's do it on the 23rd. So, I frantically wrapped up our gifts (some:) and we had our little Lenninger Christmas on Wednesday night. 

It was fun and Collin was definitely.....2, almost 3:) He wanted to open everyone's and kept taking the presents we were stacking for others and moving them to his pile:) We didn't go very crazy at all, just a few gifts for each person. We actually put Ayden to bed and just had Kate and Collin up. We pushed his gifts until the next day! I took video of our little Christmas but have trouble uploading those sometimes, so .....not tonight. 

Ron and Bobbi drove up from Missouri on Christmas Eve and had perfect weather for the trip! They arrived and we spent roughly 3 hours unloading their new car. Okay, maybe not 3 hours. But the kids were having fun unloading gifts. Then Gma B. revealed that the ones with a "K" were not for Kate and you should have seen her face:) Gma always has a sneaky plan! Dave was on call Christmas Eve and we were so happy he made it home before they arrived!

On Christmas Day, we woke up and saw what Santa brought everyone - pretty fun with a 6 year old and almost 3 year old:) Laurie flew into Madison! Dave drove down to get her...she was ahead of schedule! Awesome. She arrived and we got busy getting ready to open gifts!

Gpa reading The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve

Silly on Christmas Eve

Gma and Ayden on Christmas Day!

In the holiday spirit!

Quick family pic before we open

A nice pic with one of the kiddos! 

Having fun!

We had fun opening and it took us all day as we took breaks to snack, drink and try and get the kids to keep opening! They would stop and play with something and not want to keep going. Ayden took a nap...Kate opened a lot of gifts:) There were some known presents and fun surprises. Lots to dive into and play with in the next couple days.

Our cowgirl and cowboy:)

Kate got a newer LeapPad and Collin got her old one.
It is what we do when we need a little quiet:)

Saturday brought an outing for the whole family! We got tickets to a dinner theatre production of A Christmas Carol at the Palace Theater in the Dells. We went last year to Mary Poppins and had so much fun. The Lenningers are also connoisseurs of A Christmas Carol...we had to see it:) The boys definitely did okay, but needed someone to take them out and walk around the lobby quite a bit- thank you to Gma, Gpa and Dave for doing the majority. It was kind of rainy and yucky out that day - but very Christmasy at the theatre. A fun, new tradition!

A Christmas Carol at the Palace Theater in Wisconsin Dells

Umm...the boys loved the sleighs.
Wanted to leave during the performance to sit in them

As usual, us gals worked on a number of puzzles (we are amazing at this), many cocktails were made and lots of great quality time together! It actually snowed on Monday! Our first great snow! Ron and Bobbi braved the roads to go the grocery store, Laurie and I went for a walk, the kids played outside with their Aunt Lou and Dave had to clear the driveway:) 

Dave was making some craft cocktails - this was some cranberry ginger something:)

SO happy to be outside

Happy girl

Me and my sis-in-love

Ron and Bobbi were going to drive back on Tuesday but the weather was making them plenty nervous for the drive! A big storm was working through, so they waited for the crews to be out all morning before leaving on Tuesday. Laurie was to fly out that evening from Madison again. We had a nice, calm afternoon while they waited to hit the road. Then she started getting messages about her flight getting delayed. And delayed. And delayed. Then she was going to miss her connection. She had just ordered a bunch of supplies for a New Years Eve party she was hosting in Brooklyn. And if she couldn't get out that night, she would miss it completely. After some quick research and jumping in the car with about 5 minutes notice, Dave drove her to Milwaukee where she just caught a plane to Newark. A little stressful, but she made it safe and sound! 

Dave had a busy rest of the week and was on call for New Years Eve. The kids and I tried to have a great time. We had a playdate at a friends house and then I let them watch a movie and was going to make some popcorn treats from Pinterest. I literally burned/messed up two different recipes. What the heck?! Dave was in the hospital for a possible New Years Baby (was born just before!) and had complications and then a couple appendectomy's....he wasn't home:(  I played a countdown for the kids at 10 p.m. on Netflix and put them to bed (big kids) and I stayed up to midnight but didn't watch any coverage or anything:) 

One of the kids at the playdate had a camera that took these!
So cute

New Years Eve!

Trying to make popcorn treats....fail

They watched Robin Hood and part of Aristocats

Happy New Year!

We hosted some friends for the Rose bowl (boo - that was so sad to watch) and Collin was randomly sick during the party. But we did have fun:) And BAM! It's 2016. Wow! 

Ready for the game!

We had hope at this point...

Our reaction to the game...what?!

Well, that is just some of what happened during that holiday season:) We are happy to be into January and finding a rhythm again. Another post soon as a certain boy is turning ONE this weekend! 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Lenningers!

Peace!