Christmas Eve and Day 2009

This year we spent Christmas at home rather than in North Dakota. It felt different not spending the holiday with my family in North Dakota, but it is also good to start new traditions too. On Christmas Eve we attended the Children's Mass at the Newman Parish in Eau Claire. Then we came home and waited for Papa Ron and Grandma Claudia to arrive for supper and gift-opening. Blake had a blast handing out gifts to everyone and opening them himself.

On Christmas Day it was just the 3 1/2 of us! Blake opened his presents and stocking from Santa, and we spent the rest of the day cuddled up inside staying warm! We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and made it to and from your destinations safely!

Building our First Snowman and Fort

On Christmas Eve day we decided to take Blake outside to see if he had or would conquer his fear of the snow. Immediately he wanted to walk on the snow, unlike the last time we went outside and we had to carry him everywhere! Yeah! The snow was heavy and wet and just right for a snowman. Randy also wanted to build a fort with Blake. Here is a picture of the snowman and the fort. Later that night the snowman tipped over, so it's a good thing we captured a picture of him when we did!

Blake loves to ride on the tractor with Randy. Randy took Blake along as he plowed our driveway. After about 10 minutes on the tractor Blake ended up falling asleep! I guess we know what we'll do if we ever have trouble getting him to fall asleep at night:)

Dishwashers

On Saturday we had our friends Bill and Leslie and their daughter, Sylvie, over for dinner. After dinner both Blake and Sylvie wanted to help out by washing the dishes. They were having so much fun at the sink! If only it were this enjoyable for me!

Christmas Tree 2009

This year we finally went out and cut down our own tree! Usually we are in North Dakota for Christmas so we refrain from getting a tree. However, this year we will be staying home for the holidays, and we definitely needed a tree this season! We cut down the tree on Grandma Claudia's land! It was fun hunting for that perfect tree. Here are a few pictures of Blake admiring the tree after we put it up the first time. Yes, I did say first time because about 2 hours after first putting it up--CRASH!! All of the ornaments and a lot of needles fell off! We put it up for a second time and it hasn't fallen down again.