happy new year

Happy New Year! Hope you've had a great start to 2016. We had a really fun holiday season. We celebrated our own family Christmas on December 23rd. Jamie and the girls were home during the day, so they made the food for our family meal that we had once I got home from work. They made sushi, lamb roast, mashed potatoes, asparagus and cranberries. The girls also set the table with our fancy tablecloth and dishes. The meal was delicious!! After all the dishes were cleaned up, we exchanged gifts. Olivia and Violet made several gifts for Jamie and me, which was pretty sweet. My favorite was from Olivia, a bunch of rocks covered in glitter. She was really proud and said she made the rocks pretty for me. :)

Christmas Eve | December 24, 2015
On Christmas Eve morning, the girls woke up to find that Santa had come early. He left a note saying that he knew that we weren't going to be home on Christmas Eve night so he decided to come early. The girls were thrilled that they received what they asked for - Olivia wanted Geronimo Stilton chapter books, and Violet wanted Diary of a Wimpy Kid chapter books.

After lunch, we left for Alexandria. We met the entire Thronson family at 2:00 for church. We went to a family service which was great for all of the kids. After church, we all went to the Thronson farm for our family celebration. The kids organized a talent show again. Olivia sang a song in Spanish and Violet made a balloon hummingbird. At the end of the talent show, all of the cousins sang together while holding battery-operated candles (their idea). It was really cute. Then we opened gifts, played Pictionary, and then just hung out together. All of the kids received matching Christmas pajamas as gifts, so they all put them on. We all stayed overnight at the farm which has been one of our traditions.

Violet and Olivia | Thronson Christmas

Grandpa & Grandma with their grandkids

Cousins in their Christmas pajamas

Christmas Day | December 25, 2015
In the morning, the guys cleared off the pond at the end of my parent's driveway so all of the kids could go ice skating. The weather was pretty mild so it was a great morning to skate. The kids all had a blast together! We spent the rest of the day just hanging out and relaxing.

Ice skating at the Thronson farm

Suchy Christmas | December 26, 2015
We celebrated with the Suchy family on December 26th. We ate a delicious meal, then put our special name ornaments on the tree. Nicholas and Chelsey opened their gifts before they had to go to work, then the rest of us exchanged gifts. Violet had to keep Grandpa in line because he kept trying to open his gifts when it wasn't his turn! After that, we played games (Olivia beat Grandma in Battleship) and just enjoyed being together. It was a fun day!

Suchy cousins

Violet and Grandpa

I had the whole next week off work, so the girls and I spent some time at both grandparent's houses. We also visited my sisters at their workplaces, saw the new "Star Wars: Force Awakens" movie (which was awesome), celebrated New Years Eve with Grandpa & Grandma Suchy, visited Jamie's grandparents, stayed overnight in a hotel in Parkers Prairie, and celebrated Chelsey's 16th birthday at a bowling party. It was a fun and relaxing week! The girls were pretty happy to go back to school this week though to see their friends, and it was nice for us to get back to a regular routine. We thoroughly enjoyed our time with our families and look forward to making more memories in 2016!