2012 - Christmas in Elgin (2/5)

Alicia and Ben have been getting up early for no apparent reason recently  so it was no surprise when they where up at 5am.   And since we were up.  Lets the gift opening commence.  Unfortnately we were unable to snap a picture of the tree after Santa visited.

Alicia was excited that she almost got everything she wanted.  She was disappointed that she didn't get her Lego Friends House, (but we'll talk about that later).    Alicia's xmas gifts mostly consisted of barbies, lego friends, my little pony, and a homemade pinky-pie pillow

Ben was much slower than Alicia, as Ben wanted/insisted on playing with all of the toys before moving on to the next one.  The funniest part with Ben was when he wouldn't open a gift of his, since it didn't have Toy Story wrapping paper, (which many did).  We had to slightly open it to show a partial toy story figure for him to be interested.   Ben's xmas mostly consisted of Toy Story, Farm Equipment, and other truck/tractors.

Jointly, they have a new tool workbench, and more legos.

2012 - Christmas on Kluesner side (4/5)

After our Stockton Trip, we headed back to Dubuque, to see everyone else.   Its great to see all of the cousins, siblings and brother/sister in-laws all under one roof.  The food was great, and kids were great, and many of the pictures where great....  Next year we need to take a sibling picture.   Someone please remind us.   I'm sure as the years to come, these holidays will become more and more interesting as the kids grow older together.

2012 -Dubuque - Pre Parties (3/5)

Since the kids had a early start on the gifts, it gave us an early start on our family festivities back in Iowa/NW-Illinois.  And since Dubuque recently had over a foot of snow, we had an opportunity to go play in the snow.  Chicagoland as of 1/9/2013 has had a combined 1.4" of snow this season, so it was a great opportunity to go play in the snow.

Alicia, Cali and Ben went out to play in the snow with Todd and Heather.  (Drew tried but failed with his knee).    Here are a few videos / pictures

Then with some time to kill, and a need to make cookies.  Heather and the kids made some cookies/brownies in Dubuque to bring to the upcoming parties.  Here's a few pics from these festivities.  I wasn't around when these were made, but it looked like both Ben and Alicia had a great time helping mommy decorating the brownies.

2012 - The Pre-Holidays (1/5)

Well,  The holidays are behind us, actually it seems like eons ago, since i've had knee surgery and some complications since then.  One of the ways i can be productive is by blogging about christmas so thats what i'm going to do.   Heather will be back bringing up this blog to higher standards in blogs to come, but in the mean time, I hope you enjoy our christmas journey and pictures.  December was a busy but fun month for us.

I'll try to give a detailed cliff notes version.

 

Our Elf on the Shelf (Cookie-Dough, aka Cookie-O), was a good communication channel between our house and Santa.  He Sent Alicia's letter to Santa, and also relayed a message regarding our whereabouts on Christmas Day.   Santa actually sent a snail-mail letter to Alicia on her last day of school saying that he was going to our home a few days prior to Christmas.

Here's Cookie-O sending Alicia's letter to Santa via Fax

In Early December, we were able to make a trip to Lincoln Park Zoo.  Lincoln Park Zoo is a "free" zoo near Downtown Chicago, where you just need to pay for Parking.  We took this opportunity to see Santa and other animals, as we had recently let our other zoo memberships expire.  It was a good time, and Heather was able to capture some amazing images of the city.   And of course we couldn't go downtown without getting some Garrett's Popcorn.

Thanks for cleaning out this box, mom

La la la la la laa....

Happy holidays (a little late)

Thought I posted this awhile back, but I guess I never sent it out. It was stuck in my drafts... So better late than never! Hope all of your holidays were family and friend filled and wishing you a great new year.

Below, Alicia was very excited to have her artwork featured on our Christmas card this year :-)