Christmas: Part Deux

Christmas Eve Part: deux

Wasn’t this tree just emptied of gifts a couple of days ago?  Good gravy, my parents came and filled it up again!  We unfortunately, missed out on the Christmas traditions (Church, dinner, sledding, etc) due to me and the plague, but we tried….a few days later.

Lauren was clearly working the cheesy smile.

Merry Christmas

The kids were very excited to see that Santa Claus brought them a playhouse (which happened to be something that Lauren asked Santa for at the very last minute.)

It was a sad state of affairs in the Thompson house on Christmas morning.  I hobbled out of my quarantine to take some photos and watch the kids open their gifts. 

Everyone loved the train table and trains.  That train table has been sitting in our utility room for 2 years.  I bought it for Jack at the target toy clearance ($14 woot!!) when he was in an infant carrier.  It was too good of a deal to pass up.

CRASH!

Jack quickly moved on to vacuuming.  I quickly moved back into the fetal position in my room.

Christmas Eve

It’s slim pickings for pictures.  I ended up in bed with Influenza A and was just starting to feel slightly human again at this point.  I touched nothing and gave Kevin directions on what to do (he’s making monkey bread.)  The kids were so sad and confused as to why I couldn’t play the past couple of days.  The first day was ok but day two was bad and I had to skype with them (mainly because Lauren was being a terror and Kevin was contemplating trading her for a lump of coal.)  They were a bit better after seeing and talking to me (and getting out of the house for lunch.)  Luckily, Kevin had some days he needed to use or lose so they came in handy.

Sleddin’ party

Today, we had Christmas with the Larson’s.  We started off with a little neighborhood sledding and then moved it over to the big hill.  Jack made one trip down and was injured so that was that for us.  In hindsight, I really shouldn’t have participated at all, as I wasn’t feeling the greatest, but didn’t realize at that time what I had.

Jack is living the life with a sled ride to the big hill and home again.

Sprouty sprout

Kiwanis Holiday Lights

Tonight, we finally made it down to Sibley Park.  It wasn’t for lack of trying, but all of our previous attempts saw the traffic backed up for hours.  Tonight, we waited in line for about 30 minutes in the car.  Then, when we got in the park we  decided to park and walk it since it was a nice night (should have saved the 30 minute wait and just walked in to begin with, but we weren’t thinking.) 

We enjoyed some popcorn, hot chocolate, and hot apple cider in the warming house after a potty break.  (Don’t ask about the potty dramatics of a barely potty trained toddler while waiting in the car for 30 minutes.)  The potty break was the main reason why we parked and got out.

We walked around the entire park and it was all lit up (and choreographed to music.)

The kids enjoyed playing in the park at night. 

Lauren asked Santa for a big playhouse and Jack asked Santa for “abahandjsananajshaana” (we’re actually still not sure.)  After Santa, we went to get in line for a horse drawn carriage ride, but missed it as they stopped at 9pm.  I guess there’s always next year.  This was a fun event and a nice way to take our minds off of the terrible tragedy of today.

Lauren’s Christmas program

Today, was the school Christmas program for the kindergarten through 2nd graders.  Lauren had been pretty amped up over it for the last week and was excited to get out of bed and off to school this morning.  They had 2 performances (10am and 1:30pm) and have them separated out by alphabetical order as to which one you should attend.  We broke the rules though since Jack was at school during the morning session and we went to that one.  It’s just much more enjoyable to watch a performance when you can actually watch it, HA!

The doors opened up at 9am for the performance and I was there by ten after (as I had to drop Jack off at school.)  It was a good thing I showed up when I did to as most of the first two rows were already taken but I got aisle seats in the 4th row.  It’s also pretty handy that Lauren is one of the smallest in her class (one little gal is a bit shorter) so she’s probably going to be in the front row for quite awhile. 

As usual, Lauren didn’t disappoint.  She was full of strange facial expressions and out of place actions, but it wasn’t quite as dramatic as the previous two Christmas programs (pre-school) so she *is* growing up. LOL!  She did a great job singing and you could really tell that she was having a ball up there!

Lauren flashed me this little sign before the kinders left the stage (the came back for one big group number.) Then, my heart melted!

Here she was during the finale (surprisingly, right in front of me again.  Boy, did I get lucky in those seats!)

Of course, two cameras and two telephones between the two of us and the only video I manage to snag (that wasn’t horrible blurred) was this.  Enjoy! Oh, and yes that is Lauren giving a curtsy at the end.  She did that after every song.  Yes, she was the only one.

Christmas with the Thompsons

Grandma Pat and Grandpa John arrived today from Duluth to celebrate Christmas with us.  Unfortunately, they had to leave rather abruptly on Sunday morning to avoid the big blizzard that was coming in.  It’s a good thing they left when they did, because it got pretty nasty!

Snow day

Here comes Tommy with his shovel.  He helped his Daddy (Phil) shovel the driveway and then came to help us out too.

Jack was really into the shovel.  We need to get both kids a small sized shovel.

They match (Jack and Tommy)

Jack was still into the shoveling, and decided it was time to shovel the grass since the driveway was all clear.