Christmas Day Part II

What better way to spend the rest of Christmas Day than outside enjoying the snow? Matt and Wyatt headed out before any of us, but we all eventually joined them.

Sorensen Siblings

Matt's sisters--Mollie and Cammie

The brothers in a wrestling match---at least a twice daily occurrence--but even more fun in the snow

Once we got sick of sledding and playing in the snow, we headed to the pond and began clearing off the snow--snowblower, 2 shovels, and a broom did the trick!

The snow made a great barrier around the ice to form a rink

Matt and his brothers getting their skates on---it took awhile to get the ice cleared off and was already getting dark when they finally got to skate.

We waited until the next morning to take Wyatt out. He was napping while we were clearing off the ice and then it was so dark that we decided to just wait until the next day. Unfortunately we got a bit of an ice storm overnight, so the ice wasn't as smooth anymore. But it made for an easier time for him.

Meanwhile inside, Sadie was playing "Mommy" with her new baby doll. Matt's mom still had this little high chair and Sadie loved putting her doll in it and feeding her.

We were so sad to see our time in Madison come to an end. But we had a true vacation--we barely worked out, ate a lot, slept a lot, spent time with family and saw a few friends, and didn't do any work! It was such a refreshing time for our family to be together for an entire week. And we were thankful to be able to travel between snow storms!

Christmas Day with Sorensens

As I wrote in the last post, we are so blessed to have both families living in the same city, about 15 minutes apart. AND both families go to the same church, so we get to go to church with both families on Christmas Eve.

Sorensen Family at Church

After church, we headed back to the Sorensens for the rest of our time in Madison. We had some great appetizers after church on Christmas Eve and got ready for the big day!

I love this picture--looking through the glasses of Egg Nog at Aunt Mollie holding Sadie, who was laughing hysterically!

Christmas Morning.....we never know how early Wyatt will get up on Christmas Day, especially since he'll often wake up before 6am on a regular day! But thankfully he slept until about 6:30 and we were able to hold him off from waking everyone else until around 7. For us, this was pretty late---for everyone else in the Sorensen family, not so much! But when you see Wyatt's little face peering across your pillow, saying, "Merry Christmas! It's time to get up!", it's pretty hard not to smile and oblige him.

Santa brought Sadie a tea set and apron, hat, and oven mit

And he brought Wyatt new skates, a racecar track, Packers t-shirt, and a hockey figurine

Of course we had to try on the skates to make sure he got the right size--which he magically always does!

I had to take this picture because this seems to happen every year. At least one of Wyatt's gifts is always of great interest to Matt and his brothers--last year it was the mini hockey set, this year the race track!

It's tradition at Grammy and Papa's to have monkey bread on Christmas morning, and of course the coffee is always flowing. Wyatt had hot chocolate--but held it just like all the adults did! Notice the new Packers T?!
Sadie cracking us all up--she is such a little entertainer. And she didn't disappoint with all her aunts and uncles laughing at her and thinking everything she did was 'so cute'!

Grammy and Pap got Sadie her first American Girl Doll-a Bitty Baby! She loved opening it with Grammy and putting the diaper on her. Wyatt and Sadie with Grammy and Papa in their new bathrobes
Putting on the lipstick that came in her new purse--can't have too many of those!
The kids were definitely spoiled, yet again, by both sets of grandparents! Matt and I kept our gifts for the kids to a minimum and it made everything so much simpler( at least for us).
And when you have to drive home for Christmas, it also keeps the gifts to a minimum because everything has to be able to fit in our car to take it back home.

Christmas Eve with Bohlmans

We celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve with my side of the family. We woke up Christmas Eve morning to see this out my parents back window.......beautiful snow falling!!!
It was picturesque.

My kids are very blessed to have both sets of grandparents in the same city. As a result, Santa comes twice and they love it! The kids were excited to wake up and see if Santa had eaten his cookies and milk--Sadie was mostly excited to eat his leftovers!

I love the excitement on their faces!

Wyatt enjoyed getting to help everyone open their gifts.

Helping Pops set up his new hi-hat stand

These pics are just hilarious. My mom get a 'small box' from my Dad, which always means something great! So Wyatt was reacting to our discussions about my Dad going over my parents agreed budget for each other. You can see the progression of emotions....

Sadie got a new purse from Nani and Pops, complete with a wallet and 'credit cards' (used gift cards my mom collected from stores) and a driver's license they made for her. She loved the purse and wouldn't let it out of her sight. While we were opening our gifts, she went and put her shoes on, grabbed her vest, and walked around the house like this for what seemed like forever. It just cracked us all up!

Enjoying the snow after all the gifts

Mary Jo and Wyatt--can you believe how high the snow was?

Nani holding pouty Sadie. She was so tired and was having a hard time being happy outside after an hour or so. But she was not happy about having to go in while we were outside!

Snow almost as tall as Wyatt

Shovelling with Pops

Pops pulling Wyatt up the hill

Matt, Wyatt and I stayed outside for hours and dug lots of tunnels in the snowbanks.

Going to church on Christmas Eve----one of my favorite church services of the year!

"Why can't I wear your shoes Mommy?"

We had a great time with my family--but we missed you Lindsay! Our first Christmas without her and hopefully our last:) We all got some really fun gifts, but more than anything, we enjoyed being with our family and being able to spend some much needed time together. And thank goodness for all the snow--we couldn't get enough of it!