Christmas Vacation 2017

Christmas Vacation this year was lots of fun!  We are blessed that Jon always gets the whole 2 weeks-ish around Christmas off of work so it's some good family time we always look forward to!

For most of the break we were in MN at Jon's parents house.  We also convinced Jon's sister, Amberly, and her family to fly out from Utah and Jon's brother, Matt, from Texas decided to join the fun with his two girls as well!  We had lots of good times chatting with family, Christmas shopping, doing crafts with the kids, sledding, going out, and eating good food that I didn't have to make!  The kids loved all the cousin play time.

The main bummer of the vacation was that Zach was sick for most of it.  He had a fever for several days and then developed a deep cough.  We are pretty sure he had the flu but it just wasn't as bad because he'd gotten his flu shot.  He was a trooper though and still managed to have a good time with us most of the time

We were able to go sledding two times while we were there.  All of the family loved it!  The first time we went wasn't quite as cold as the second time so we were able to stay out longer playing in the snow and even found a sled big enough for our whole family to go down the hill at the same time.  The second time was still lots of fun but it was super cold so the kids only lasted about 20 minutes.

Something I always look forward to when we visit MN is getting to go out to movies and/or dinner with just the adults.  This year we went to go see the new Jumanji one night and went out to half-price apps at Applebees another night.  Both were lots of fun!

Christmas morning was a bit chaotic with all the kids in a small space but everyone had a good time and was spoiled with plenty of presents.  Katie's favorite present was her art set that I put together for both her and Colton.  Colton's favorite present was a two-headed dragon he got from Santa.  Zach mostly just liked the treats but he really liked his singing Daniel Tiger as well.

Jon and I mostly just picked out a lot of our own presents this year.  One of my favorite gifts was my Ninja Blender.  I love it!  It blends my smoothies so smooth!  Jon also bought me some cute clothes I like, some earrings, and even some nice abominable snowman pajama pants for memory sake :)  We opened some of our presents after we got back home to Iowa.

 We left MN on the 29th in order to spend a few days relaxing and celebrate New Years at home.  We ended up having to leave at 5am because a bad snowstorm was coming in.  We were able to escape most of it but the last hour of our drive was pretty snowy.  We stopped for gas and a bathroom break quick on the way home and some random man came up to me and told me that someone had done something kind for him and he wanted to pay it forward.  He asked if I would mind if he bought each of my kids a small Ty stuffed animal.  The kids were all so excited and it was such a kind and sweet reminder of what the season is all about!  We ended up getting 4-5 inches of snow in that storm and it was fun to be at home and relax while watching the snowfall.  We also finished opening the presents we had left in Iowa.  We even broke down and took the kids to buy a fish, their first (and probably only-ever pet). :)

The kids with their stuffed beanie babies from the kind stranger :)

For New Years Eve we enjoyed our traditional appetizer dinner and chocolate fondue and even added in cotton candy and snow cones this year.  We pulled out sleeping bags into the living room and watched Minions with the kids and at about 10pm we watched a Netflix countdown and called it good.  New Years Day I made a turkey dinner, baked sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, and fruit salad.  It was yummy but I sincerely hate preparing turkey.  It.is.gross.

Overall, it was a great vacation and we were sad when it was over!