Final Christmas Celebration of 2010

Today was our last Christmas for the year and it was the Battaglia Christmas at Steve's aunt and uncle's house in Duluth. We tried to leave a bit early in hopes that Olivia would fall asleep in the car and she did get about a 45 minute nap. We arrived around lunch time and ate, opened presents, and then took about a million photos of the whole family.

It was great to see all Steve's cousins since it's usually hard to get everyone together in the same room.

Christmas Day

Christmas day was another full of visiting with family and opening presents. It seems like again this year, Christmas is never ending. Jack is starting to think every day is filled with presents.

We were up early this morning to see what Santa had delivered to us. Jack was pretty funny about it this year and it's just amazing what joy "Santa" bring to little kids. When the kids woke up they spent a few minutes inspecting the 'cookie' plate to see if Santa ate of his cookies and drank every last bit of milk. Santa seemed to leave a part of a cookie left over, so Olivia quickly ate it up before Jack could even get a good look at it.

After Santa - we headed to church, which was not very busy. For lunch we headed to my aunt Nancy's for the Johnson family celebration...more presents, food, and family.

Again, headed home for Olivia's nap then back to Steve's parents to see Steve's aunt's family. We ate supper and did another little dice game, which resulted in an array of presents for all of us.

We also spent a lot of the day getting all Jack and Olivia's new toys opened, new clothes washed, and some of our presents put together. I'm hoping to stay ahead of the present influx this year, rather than realizing 10 months from now we still have unopened gifts (oops :))

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve this year was a bit less busy than in the past since the Battaglia Christmas got moved to another day. We hung out most of the day around the house and did some grocery shopping and last minute presents After Olivia nap we opened a few presents at home and then headed to Steve's parents for an immediate family gift opening. The kids got a ton of presents and had a blast opening all of them. One of the funniest gifts was for Olivia, a Tickle Me Elmo. We started it up and she laughed so hard and then the doll, that wiggles all around, moved onto her lap, and she got a little afraid and screamed and hit the thing. Now she keeps a safe distance.

*warning - picture overkill* 

 Once we left their house we headed up to my Grandpa Burman's house for that family get-together. More presents a little dice game gift exchange and we headed home to get the kids to bed around 10pm.

Christmas Program

Today was the Christmas program at Think N Play. Jack's group was first to sing and although the kids were a little shy, they did a great job with "Santa Clause is Coming to Town" and "I'm a little Snowman". Jack participated quite a bit and was happy to have so many family members there to see him.

Olivia on the other hand pretty much broke down on stage. On the way up front she spotted Steve and wanted to run to him. Then she recovered and was all set up to play the 'sticks'. As soon as her group start singing and ringing the bells loudly - she started screaming. There were even real tears, so one of the teachers grabbed her and handed her to me in the crowd.

Once the kids were done singing - Santa came for a visit. Jack of course was hesitant to even go near him, but again agreed to just stand next to him. This time he informed him that he wanted a "shooter gun" for Christmas.

The funny part of the day was when we were walking out of school and Santa was leaving at the same time. Jack quickly asked where his sleigh was parked and why we couldn't see his reindeer. I told him the sleigh and reindeer were out back...then minutes later Santa drove off in his Pontiac Grand Am. LOL!

1st Christmas

Today we had our first Christmas celebration with the Johnson side. We headed over there about 10:30 this morning to open presents and eat lunch. Of course Jack ripped through his presents in about 10 minutes and then went onto Olivia's, Steve's, and mine. After eating lunch and quite a few cookies, we headed home to get Olivia down for a nap.

 Jack stayed behind with Grandma and she took him to a childrens Christmas party in Cloquet. They decorated cookies, watched a magician, and even saw santa. Jack didn't want to sit on his lap, but agreed to stand next to him.

New Blankets

This fall, when I was in the cities, I had bought some new fleece to make each of the kids tie blankets for at daycare. Now that Olivia would be sleeping on a cot, I thought it would be nice for her to have something a bit thicker to snuggle up with. Within a week of buying the fleece, I quickly made Jack's blanket, so he could start using it. Then, after 2 days - the state of MN introduced a new law that daycares can no longer have 2 sided blankets - meaning - NO TIE BLANKETS. Ugh! So needless to say I wasn't in as big of a hurry to finish Olivia's.

Well finally this week I finished hers and will be using it as a Christmas present. Jack's of course has been using his for a few months now, but I'm thinking about wrapping it up - just to see if he notices :)

Hoot Hoot my hat is too cute!

Finally we just got the hat I'd ordered for Olivia a few weeks back. It's just too cute not to share...

Christmas Decorating

Well I think the Christmas decorating in our home is finally complete. After being delayed in getting our tree because of my work trip, I felt like we were really behind. This past Saturday we went out to get our Christmas tree in the morning and then spent the rest of the weekend getting it decorated.

I also took Monday off and finished up the rest of the house. So we are finally in the Christmas spirit around the Battaglia house. (Again - terrible camera for anyone who has pitty on me and wants to get me new one :))

We got all four of our stockings up on the fireplace. Which reminds me...last night I ran the fireplace without moving the stockings up, and let's just say mine and Steve's got a little toasty.

Also, Jack put up his own little tree in the basement this year and he picked out all the ornaments. He loves plugging it in each day.

Bentleyville 2010

We decided to go to Bentleyville tonight because we've heard that it's supposed to be getting colder in the coming days. When we left the house it was over 20 degress, so we thought it wouldn't be too bad. We bundled up the kids and ourselves and headed for Duluth. There were so many people going there, the parking was crazy. The second we got out of the car we felt the freezing lake wind. IT WAS BRUTAL!

We wrapped Olivia up in the stroller (and we only brought the single stroller, because we figured Jack would refuse to ride) and made our way closer to the lights. Jack enjoyed it, but I must say - we didn't stop for any of the goodies. No cookies, hot chocolate, popcorn, marshmallows...No santa, reindeer or anything for that matter. Olivia was toasty warm and didn't make a peep, but the rest of us basically sprinted along the path. I whipped out my camera to try and take a few pictures, but at that point I didn't really even care.

In this picture Jack is wearing my scarf because his face was freezing cold.

On the left is a picture of the tallest man-made Christmas tree in the nation.

Once we got back in the car the temp still said 23 degrees, so we checked out the Weather Channel on our phones and it said "Feels like 4". Ha!

Thanksgiving

Ok, so I'm a little bit late on this post, but after you read what I've been through in the last week - you will forgive the delay in writing.

For Thanksgiving day, we went to Battaglia's around lunch time and of course had a full turkey dinner. We headed home around 1, so we could try and get the kids down for a nap before going out to my aunt's to spend Thanksgiving with my family. Jack woke up after about sleeping for 20 minutes saying he wasn't feeling good, but you could tell her was confused and didn't know what was about to happen. Minutes later he started throwing up all over the bathroom. Since he clearly was sick, I took Olivia out to my aunt's while Steve stayed home and Jack continued to be sick.

We figured Olivia was in the clear, but then 2 nights later she threw up in her sleep. Thankfully, it was only one time and she pretty much slept right through it.

THEN...Monday, I left on a work trip to Cleveland. During the first day of meetings, I started to feel achy and joked with my boss that I hoped I wasn't getting the flu like the kids had. By the afternoon, I had thrown up several times in the office, in the bushes, and in my hotel. I was so sick that I couldn't even lift my head off of my pillow. I was glad to be traveling with other people, because finally they brought me some food and told me to get out on the first flight the next morning. Although I missed the entire second day of meetings, I was happy to be back home in my own bed.