Christmas morning we woke up at Matt's parent's house and thankfully the kids slept in until almost 7am. We gathered them on the steps again--this time on the same steps that Matt and his siblings used to wait on--and checked to make sure everything was all ready to go. Matt peaked out the front door and some of the reindeer food was indeed gone---oh boy!! Everyone in Matt's family was at Matt's parents except for his brother Kyle and his wife Christy. So everyone slowly made their way into the sun room to see the kids' excitement over their Santa gifts, round 2.
The kids all got gifts that went with the gifts Santa had brought the night before...games and controllers for the WiiU, clothes and accessories for Sadie's American Girl Doll and games for Blake. The kids also all got new scooters, since theirs have all been run over by various vehicles at one point in time and were non-functioning!
The Sorensen family has many traditions and one of my favorites is the monkey bread we have on Christmas morning while we open gifts. This year, my sister-in-law Christy helped my mother-in-law out by baking the monkey bread (since my MIL has everything else to make for Christmas brunch that morning and then Christmas dinner in the evening). And it was AmAzInG!! She definitely has the gift of baking, like my mother-in-law, and she added some apples as well as a different caramel sauce that resulted in a huge hit, which I am quite sure my mother-in-law was happy about since it relieves some of her cooking duties!
In Matt's family, we all find a seat in the sunroom and the kids hand out all the presents. We all get a 'pile' of gifts right by us and then we take turns going around the room, opening one gift at a time. It's a great lesson in patience for my kids, since there are 9 adults in the room taking turns in addition to the three kids. There are also a few people in Matt's family, who shall remain nameless, that like to 'hoard' their gifts until the end. They have someone go in their place or say, "You go ahead, I only have a few left so I can wait" and then by the end, they still have several gifts left. But over the years, people have become suspicious of said persons and then we all begin examining their piles and trying to see if there are any hidden. As you can imagine, the entire process can take quite awhile--usually all morning!!
Don't you love the expression on their faces?
This was definitely the year of the sports team gear....and Wyatt couldn't have been happier!
Gotta love new hockey gear--necessary for a growing boy!
I love this picture...Blake was wondering where his lego set was (which was actually coming later) and Matt had to explain to him that this was Wyatt's and he needed to be happy for Wyatt--always a tough lesson to learn!
He quickly found his happy place and was playing with his new helicopter, snowcat and zamboni.
Monte Ball jersey!!!!!
After opening gifts and eating way too much monkey bread, Matt and I could tell that the kids (and the two of us for that matter) were needed some physical activity and needed to get outside. We started out sledding in Matt's parent's backyard on all the fresh snow, but we quickly decided that something a bit more active would be better. SO, we took the kids to Elver Park. (For those of you not from Madison, Elver Park is (in)famous for being the biggest sledding hill you've ever seen. Often times, as adults, we see something that seemed so big as a kid but no longer seems that way as adults. Let's just say that's not the case with Elver. In fact, I think Elver seems a bit scarrier as an adult because you realize what injuries could actually happen there. It's essentially a giant ice hill.)
There were quite a few people out there on Christmas Day and we saw people sledding down the hill on all forms of sleds--old wooden toboggans, plastic discs, inner tubes and even a plastic kiddie pool filled with 10 people!!
We had a great time, lots of laughs and screams, and LOTS of walking up the big hill. At one point, Blake just laid down in the middle of the walk up the hill.
We were all SO warm for working so hard climbing the hill....check out Uncle Ty's gloves when we got in the car.....
Yeah, that's steam coming off his hands! Crazy!
We came home, got cleaned up, B took a nap (3 1/2 hrs) and enjoyed a wonderful Christmas dinner. It was a great day and a great end to our time in Madison. It's never enough time but maybe that's what always helps us all look so forward to it each year!
Matt's grandpa's health was beginning to fail (he actually passed away last week), so Matt and his brother Tyler drove over to Michigan early the next morning to spend some time with him and then Matt flew home from there that evening. I was so glad he was able to spend some time with him, but that meant I got to pack up the car on my own and drive 4 hrs. home with the kids. Thankfully, everything fit and the kids did awesome! Thanks to both of our families for making our Christmas so special. We are so blessed to have great families and we love every minute of our time with them!
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