My kids crack me up.  I taught Emma the song “the 12 days of Christmas”, which she thought was hilarious because who wants a partridge in a pear tree for a present.  We sang it so much Zach caught on to the idea of “days of Christmas” – he thinks that you get as many…

If you want to play baseball in Minnesota in the winter… put up a dome.  And if you want to go to  a waterpark in the winter… move it inside!  3 cheers for whoever thought that up.  Since being here in the frozen tundra we have made it a tradition to go around Christmas time…

We spent the Christmas season listening to Peter Brineholt's Christmas album, which I love.  It has a rendition of "I saw 3 ships" that has an Irish sound to it, and it makes a great dancing song – so the kids and I also spent the season dancing whenever it came on.  I'd hold Carter…

The day after Christmas was warm enough to get out and build a snowman – finally!  Emma was so excited – and so was I!  The snow had melted enough so that it was perfect snowman snow… and our snowballs got so big so fast that we couldn't lift them alone and had to call…

Daddy. Cheeseball. Daddy.  Cheeseball. Daddy wants a cheeseball. Daddy is a cheeseball.

We got a big snowstorm Thursday/Friday – enough that Zach’s Christmas vacation from school started a day early!  And Nate’s vacation started after his exam that afternoon (not cancelled, of course), making for a fun, snowy afternoon that included lots runs down the sledding hill in our front yard and some snow football.  

Zach, upon arriving home from school on Thursday:  "Logan O. said, 'I hope you get poop for Christmas.'   I said, 'I hope you get poop for Christmas, too.'  That's what friends do."  (Later I found out that he really meant "that's what friends do, make jokes with each other like that".   Oh.) 

It is our family tradition to take the kids to pick out toys for Toys for Tots and then eat dinner at the mall and visit Santa.  This year, when we got to the mall, Santa was out feeding his reindeer.    We opted to eat dinner first instead of be the first in line……

This is what we woke up to on Monday…windchills of 35 below zero… and so instead of going to the grocery store, this is what we did:   As always, each side of the gingerbread house reflects the personality of it's creator. Thanks, Grandma, for the fun, inside tradition!