Christmas 2011

So, I'm making good on my resolution - Christmas pictures/stories, as promised!

We were able to spend a total of 10 days in IL with my family this year. It was fabulous. As we were anticipating our trip to the Midwest, we were praying for two things: good health throughout our trip and at least a day of snow. Alas, we didn't get any snow BUT we were the only ones of the whole Thomson side to stay healthy! (I actually did come down with the flu one night, but it was relatively short lived, so I'm not really counting it.)

The locals were enjoying 'nice' winter weather, which as far as Californians are concerned, was freezing. :) All joking aside, we (mostly Luke) were glad to be able to get out of the house and do some outside activities- like go on a 'tractor ride' up and down the driveway.

Luke and Micah had fun trying to catch some snow flurries.We had plenty of indoors fun too- Pops played some songs on the piano.

Jingle Bells was a huge hit with the boys!

We went to the Children's Museum one morning (I don't have many good pictures, so I'm not going to bother posting any- sorry). Luke and Micah had a blast playing at all of the different exhibits. Luke's favorite was the water tables - he was totally soaked by the time we left. Matt attempted to dry out Luke's shirt with the blowdryers in the bathroom, without much success. Needless to say, that was a cold ride home for poor, warm-blooded Luke.

Elin liked the museum too - particularly because it gave her an excuse to show off her new boots from Aunt Andrea!

NeeNee and the boys decorated a gingerbread train. I must say, I was skeptical of how this activity would go - anticipating way too much sugar being ingested, a few fits being thrown, fights over frosting, inevitable meltdowns... you get the idea. But much to my delight, that was not the case at all! They really got into it and did a great job decorating the train, and the sugar intake was minimal (at least as far as I know). :)

Matt's mom went up to Michigan after Eric and Candice's wedding then took the train back to Chicago to spend Christmas with us at my parents house. It was great to spend additional time with her. Elin was especially spoiled with all the extra snuggles.

My mom gave all of the 'young 'ins' pajamas on Christmas Eve. We had a few attempts at a picture of all of us modeling our new jams... yeah, this is the best it got. sigh.

Elin was super excited about her first Christmas..see!

Luke was a champ in the self-restraint department and resisted the temptation to dive into all those presents before the rest of the family came over. After opening presents, the little ones were all ready for a nap. We actually got all four kids to nap at the same time, believe it or not! It was fun to play some games without being interrupted by kids asking for juice, needing a diaper change, or fighting over the same toy. We had our traditional Christmas meal of Swedish sausage (Grandma Phillips would be proud that Luke inhaled the Swedish meatballs and had two links of sausage). After cleaning up dinner, we had a surprise visit from the Big Man himself, Santa! Luke was pretty excited that Santa was at Pops and Nee Nee's house - at least until Jim and Julie's dog, Gracie, saw the intruder and sprung into guard dog action! It was quite entertaining actually.

All in all, it was a great Christmas day and Christmas vacation as a whole! We are always overwhelmed when we think about all of the ways we are blessed at Christmas time, this year was no exception.