Christmas in Brookfield

Our Christmas fun began on the 22nd, the Monday of Christmas week, when the Wissinks and the Okuleys arrived. I had somehow managed to get all my shopping done, Christmas cards and letters sent out, mailing multiple packages to California, and some baking and cooking done by this time.  For someone who tends to procrastinate this was a major accomplishment!

After dinner on Monday we piled into two cars and went to see the Holiday Lights Display at the Country Springs Hotel in Waukesha.  They have this every year--a huge, drive-through display of lights.  When you get finished with that you can go into a building to see a really nice model railroad display.  Of course that was a big hit with Jeremiah!  We also walked through another building that had a very nice, almost life-size, nativity on display.

Tuesday was the annual Cedarburg outing for JoAnne, Abby, Neil, Rachel, Hope and me. This was Hope's first (of many, probably) visit to Cedarburg, and she took it all in stride. Lunch at the Cream and Crepe is always a highlight, and it did not disappoint.

 Hope is not impressed with the amazing dessert crepe!

 She seemed a bit bored with the shopping as well.

Wednesday was Christmas Eve, and Ben arrived that morning.  He had not met Hope before, so they had some get-acquainted time.

It's sort of become our tradition to go out somewhere for a nice lunch on Christmas Eve, since we don't really have a full meal in the evening. This year we decided on Cafe Hollander in Wauwatosa, and it was a good choice.  We all went to church for the beautiful 5 pm Christmas Eve service, and we all managed to light our candles without any problems.

After church we got all the appetizers made and the table set in record time. Many hands make light work!

I could probably substitute the picture from last year--

the table looks pretty much the same every year. 

Jeremiah enjoying his appetizers

After we ate it was time for presents, and unfortunately I took very few pictures. So here are the few that I took.

Jeremiah with his side-loading garbage truck.

(not to be confused with the one that he already has at home)

Molly was not forgotten. She is attacking her

new toy--a stuffed reindeer.

While we opened presents we had a Facetime session with Matt, Cheryl, Josie and Evan.  We watched them open presents and they watched us open presents. Not quite like being together, but the next best thing.

Neil was the holder of the iPad during our Facetime session.

On Christmas morning we start out with butterhorns and cinnamon rolls for breakfast, and then we do stockings.
  

I think that a Play dough session has become a tradition for these two. 

I think this was his gift from Abby and Neil.

Hope had some bonding time with her aunt and uncle.

Lew and JoAnne joined us for Christmas dinner that afternoon.  Abby and Neil left later that day for Ohio, and Ben also went back to Chicago that evening. The Wissinks stayed until Sunday. 

On Friday afternoon we went bowling, but I did not get any pictures of that adventure. I should have gotten a video of Jeremiah's ball making its way down the alley..........s-l-o-w-l-y.  At one point it actually stopped and started rolling backwards! After bowling we went to Chick fil A for dinner. Jeremiah enjoyed the play space.

And just a few random pictures from our time together:

                               Hope and Auntie Abby having some girl talk

Bob enjoying his caramel apple from Amy's in Cedarburg

Hope in one of her cute Christmas outfits....

...and another cute outfit.

Bath time in Grandma's kitchen sink

And finally, a few pictures featuring Hope's hair:

You will only see her hair like this right after her bath.

It's starting to dry and starting to stick up!

And here she is in full "crazy hair mode!"

Could she be any cuter??

Thanksgiving in California--Part 2

Evan's birthday celebration continued into the next week, with the arrival of a gift that I had ordered for him.

Lots of pieces!

A project for Grandpa!

One more birthday gift

I somehow only ended up with 2 Thanksgiving-related pictures.  Cheryl and the kids made some cute little edible turkeys---using yummy things like oreo cookies and candy. 

Evan and his turkey

My contribution to the Thanksgiving dinner at Elgersmas?  A couple of pies.  Of course making pies always involves pie crust cookies.

Our visits in Redlands usually involve some visits to a nearby park.  This time I think we only made it there one time.

 A couple pictures of hanging out at home:

Very intent on his Play-do

Chillin' out!

 The Saturday after Thanksgiving we went to the Holiday Lights Festival in Riverside.  This was a really nice event, and obviously very popular.  We were happy that we got their early enough so that we beat some of the crowds, and were able to find a place to eat dinner (outdoors!) without a long wait. There is a historic hotel, The Mission Inn, that occupies an entire city block, and it is decorated beautifully for the holidays.  We walked around the whole block enjoying all the lighted displays.  The balconies are also decorated, with carolers, toy soldiers and nutcrackers.

2 silly kids and a snowman

There was also a display in the courtyard of the hotel, and we intended to walk through that as well.......until we discovered that the line to get in was about two blocks long.  We decided to skip that and went to meet the reindeer instead.

By the end of the evening, Josie was ready for a little ride on Dad's shoulders.

And the next day was Sunday....which means more pancakes!  Evan was right on hand to help out again.

And an intense game of Zingo before we had to head to the airport for our trip home:

Grandpa looks a bit puzzled!

And that's it for the California report!

Thanksgiving in California---Part 1

Well, here I go again---way behind with posting on the blog. My excuse is that, now that I take more pictures with my phone than with my camera, it is a painstaking process for me to get my pictures from the phone to the computer so that I can use them.  I am sure there is an easy way way to do it, but I haven't figured it out yet.  I think I need some instruction from soneone.  Any volunteers? 

Anyway, we made a trip to California in November and were there for almost 2 weeks.  We missed Evan's 3rd birthday by one day, but we did get in on some celebrating.  The first evening we were there we went to a trampoline place (I don't remember the name of it) where they also had some arcade games.  And we topped off the evening with pizza in the restaurant there.

There was lots of movement going on, 

causing blurry pictures.

The only arcade game that I got a picture of

Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of the biggest kid on the trampolines, or of him playing the arcade games.  I think that most of the tickets that were won, came from Matt shooting baskets. :)  Josie and Evan loved pulling out the long strings of tickets that he won.

Our first full day there was the last day of school before Thanksgiving break. There were some special things going on in the pre-school that morning, and I got to enjoy some of those.  There was a special Thanksgiving chapel for all the pre-school classes, which was very nice.  

Listening attentively to the story

I also got to spend some time in Josie's classroom and enjoyed their morning routines, and also got in on some special Thanksgiving crafts.  I'm so glad that I got to do that.

There was a special holiday festival in downtown Redlands the first week-end we were there.  There was a bouncy house which was a big hit with the kids.  No pictures, though, because they were moving too fast. A big hit with all of us was the funnel cake!  I can't even remember the last time I had one of those. 

We had to wait in line a while for this, but we got to have a ride in a horse-drawn chariot---sort of a Cinderella type of chariot.  That was a big hit as well!  We felt like princes and princesses!

Of course, if it's Sunday morning, there will be pancakes, even if we aren't at home. And Grandpa had a very willing assistant!

We took a drive up to Oak Glen on Sunday afternoon, and they took us to a place where we had some really delicious apple cider donuts!  And they could not have been any fresher---we could watch them being made!  This place also claims to have the oldest tree of its kind--not sure if it's the oldest in the state, or the oldest in the area, or what.  And I don't remember the kind of tree either---maybe chestnut?  (That's one of the problems with being so slow about doing my posts.) Anyway, we got a picture of Josie and Evan in front of a very old, and very large tree.

And I think that I'm going to make this the first installment.  More California pictures to come!