Christmas with Nana and Papa

Christmas Day, we head up to St. Paul to spend the afternoon/evening with Nana, Papa, Auntie Erin, Pedro, Auntie Ellen, RJ and Great Grama. We didn't have the best weather this year, but that didn't stop any of us from making the trek. The girls got one more day of wear out of their Christmas dresses and I got one more day of not making dinner. Bonus on all levels!

Here's Auntie Ellen reading the Christmas pop up books to the kids

Nanni the ham

Great Grama and great grandkids

Great Grama and Abby

Great Grama and Nanni

Great Grama and RJ

Great Grama and Er

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning we celebrate at home...just the 4 of us. Christmas is my favorite holiday and my favorite part of it is Christmas morning with our little family all in the same spot, opening presents in the morning, relaxing in our jammies and having a delicious breakfast that Dana makes. The breakfast part has just been added to the tradition since Abby entered the picture and it's definitely a keeper!

Here are the girls, fresh out of bed, checking out what Santa left for them
Santa brought each girl a new sled, some fancy new nail polishes and pink My Little Ponies!

Anni LOVES her pony!

Abby was very excited about her sled!

Sleepy Anni still likes to open presents

Working in their pony hair salon

For the girls, Dana made French toast with sugared flowers

For us (ok, mostly for me), Dana made eggs benedict with lobster cakes, fresh avocado, Mexican cheese and olive bread. Soooo good!

Schmidt Christmas

Christmas Eve we spend with the Schmidt side of the family. Despite the nasty weather this year, we were able to make it down and spend a lovely afternoon/evening munching on some tasty grub and opening some fun presents.

Anni getting started on her presents

Abby opening the pony Grandpa got especially for her. Anni got one too.

More presents

Anni hamming it up while Abby concentrates on her present

Smile!

Both girls opening the super fancy present from GigiJeff...a new bike game for the computer. It's a big hit!

Paradise Christmas

Because we're so lucky to have so many family members who love and adore us, we get to celebrate Christmas quite a few times each year. Here are some photos from Christmas at Grandpa Dan and Grandma Deb's house:

Anni attempting to be patient

Abby making the same attempt

No more patience

Abby making her cute face

Showing off her new Christmas dress

Anni's favorite toy of the evening

Grandpa and the girls

Holiday Train

Hastings has a great tradition around Christmas. Canadian Pacific runs a holiday train from Red Wing through St. Paul, and one of the stops is right behind our house. The girls have never gotten to experience the train before, so this year we bundled them up and took them out to see Santa rock the train. It was a very chilly day, but the girls got to have some hot chocolate while we waited for Santa to arrive.

Here's Anni with her hot chocolate mustache
And Abby with her hot chocolate chin

Anni and Dana waiting for Santa

The train when it (finally) arrived

Decorating for Christmas

We got to cut our tree down from the farm again this year. The girls had a great time picking out the tree and then decorating a few days later.

Here's the section Anni decorated:

And here's the finished product

Abby was a little upset we didn't have a star for the top of the tree this year, so I've promised her next year we can get one. And you can bet she'll hold me to that promise.

Grandma's Surprise Party

Ok, so I'm a little backed up on my postings. I'm pregnant. What can you do? Here are some photos from Grandma's Debbie's surprise birthday party, back in November:

Grandma greeting her guests

Opening presents

Getting her birthday hug from Anni

Fancy new wine glass

Dana and Anni watching the present opening

Abby liked the bubble wrap best

Grandma officially joining the Red Hat Brigade