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!

Merry Christmas!

We went downtown to see Macy's "A Day in the Life of an Elf" display on Sunday, December 20th. Going to Macy's has been our family tradition for many years. At the end, we had our visit with Santa. Violet asked Santa for "Diary of a Wimpy Kid" books and Olivia asked for "Geronimo Stilton" books. They also told Santa they were going to spend the day watching football!

Merry Christmas from our family to yours! All the best to you in 2016!

eight is great!

Olivia and Violet turned eight on November 29th. As part of our celebration, we went to a Minnesota Wild hockey game on November 28th with my whole family. Olivia and Violet's cousin Evan played hockey with his team during second intermission, which was pretty cool! It was the girls' first time at a Wild game and they really enjoyed it. They even got a hockey puck and certificate to commemorate their first game. The horn blast after each Wild goal was pretty exciting (and loud!) to them. The Wild were up 3-1 in the third period but somehow managed to lose in overtime, but we still had a lot of fun.

Olivia with her "first game" puck and certificate

Violet with her "first game" puck and certificate

We also had another first sporting event for the girls, a Gopher mens basketball game on November 15th at Williams Arena (otherwise known as "The Barn"). It was a non-conference game so there weren't many people there, which in a way was kind of nice. In the third quarter, Goldy Gopher came into the stands near us so the girls were able to meet him. They thought that was pretty exciting!

With Goldy Gopher

On Olivia and Violet's actual birthday, we took them out to eat at Don Pablo's. My sister Terri and her family came with us. Violet won a gift certificate to eat there back in first grade and we hadn't had a chance to take them so they were pretty eager to go there. Every time we go up to visit our parents, the girls can see Don Pablo's restaurant from the freeway. Therefore, every time we drive by they look at it longingly and say "There's Don Pablo's!" So that's why we ate there. What cracked us up the most is that the girls both ordered corn dogs! At a Mexican restaurant! Sheesh. After we were done eating, our waitress came over with two sombreros for the birthday girls to wear, and several staff members sang them a birthday song. They thought it was awesome.

Birthday senoritas

We are winding down now with activities but Olivia has been in tennis class, Violet in lacrosse class and they both have been in swimming lessons. They are looking forwarding to having two weeks off school during winter break. And of course, they are VERY excited for Christmas! They've been counting the days and have told me numerous times how excited they are.