Getting Ready for Christmas!

Posing at school with his XMas tree he made
Singing at the school XMas program
Cousin Lucy pushing Rudolph

Singing with friends Drew Sacia and Cousin Will at Sunday School program

Jenny, Chelsea, Mallory, Brigette, Meg, and Emily at our gift exchange

Christmas with the Zika and Miller boys

(BTW, Evan insisted on holding Baby Ryan and then proceeded to drop him on his face right after we snapped this picture. None of the Moms could react in time to catch him. Shoot@!!)

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All this snow is really reeking havoc on our plans and my husband's snowblower. He has already been out 10 times in the last week to dig our inflatable snowman out of the front yard and now it's snowing again today. I still have some last-minute shopping to do (including getting a new camera) before Thursday and now we are homebound again because of bad roads. We've been busy getting ready for Christmas by celebrating early with family and friends. We exchanged gifts with the Miller and Zika family this weekend and the boys had a blast. They got to open a present and play with all their buddies. Plus, the adults got to have a few drinks and catch up. The key is to feed the kids first, then send them to the toy room, then the adults get a meal to themselves.

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J.P. had his Christmas singing programs at Sunday School and Preschool this week. He was great at both and actually sang. He wasn't thrilled about putting the button-down shirt on to dress up for both events, but recovered once he got on stage. They even sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. He is loving school and seems to be learning a lot now that the year is well underway. We have finally decided that we are going to hold him back from kindergarten next year.

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My siblings and the cousins on my side came over last night to exchange presents. It is nice to get that chaos over with before we all commence at Grandma's house. They all get a little crazy when they're together. Plus, they know when the adults start talking and having a few drinks, they can get into mischief. Thank God for the older cousins who can help with crowd-management.

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On a sad note, Nick's Grandma Virginia did pass away last week after being in hospice care for 10 days. We celebrated her life at her wake/funeral on Saturday in Waseca. Things went smoothly and the kids actually behaved for this difficult day. But we are comforted knowing she is not in pain anymore and with Nick's Grandpa Erv in heaven now.