Thank goodness December is almost over!!!

I really do like winter and Decemer but this year has been a little more event filled than usual it seems...or maybe it's just since I've been doing most of it solo since Larry is still down in Alabama for Coast Guard.  Whatever the reason, I will be glad to see 2011!!

A few weeks ago, Morgan and I started our vacation heading to Minnesota for a cousin's wedding.  What a  great time that was.  Not only was the ceremony beautiful, the weather cooperated and we danced the night away; my brother and dad were able to make it from South Dakota.  We don't get to see them as much as we'd like so it made the weekend even better.  The day after the wedding, we drove around the area with my grandma, dad, brother and Morgan all in tow.  Grandma helped point out houses our realtives live (or lived) in, found the old church my dad was baptized in and had lots of fun just looking at the scenery.  We spent time at several of our family houses for meals while we were there so we really did a lot of visiting in a short amount of time. 

After the wedding weekend, we headed back to the Twin Cities to rest up a bit, and get a few chores done before Christmas.  We snuck in a visit to our friends Joy & Ken, then on Thursday night, daddy flew in just as it started to snow yet again.  Of course everyone wanted to see him; especially us so we scheduled as much family time as we could, and our calendar was FULL!!

Friday we spent some quality time at Larry's brother Pete's house for Christmas Eve where we ate the traditional Hagen Kruks, then we walked over to their neighbor's house where Santa was scheduled to visit.  That was a lot of fun!  It did get a little late and with a few too many sweets available, after we got home Morgan had an upset stomach and kept us up for a few hours in the middle of the night.  Needless to say, we were all very tired for Christmas morning...but we were still able to help fix breakfast (fried kruks & cinnamon rolls) and enjoyed everyone's company while opening gifts.  I love that we have technology at our fingertips to make the family events even more enjoyable...we had Larry's parents join us via the computer camera so it was just like they were there with us...almost.   

After gifts with the Hagens, we headed back out to Lester Prairie where we ate lunch and opened gifts with Jen's side of the family.  After the kids opened their gifts, the adults played a game to get theirs.  It was a dice game merged with a white elephant type gift...it can get pretty crazy when the adults 'fight' over a gift that's a big hit. We stuffed our faces again with all the good food around, a nap here and there by a few folks and then a good game of cards to round out the evening.  We then headed over to my Uncle Dave and Aunt Kim's house, where we played a game of Catch Phrase (the electronic version) and had a blast with that.  I can say that I want to add that game to our game inventory at home!!  After Morgan went to sleep, Larry and I stayed up watching the end of a Zombie movie with my cousins (and why we stayed up...I'm not sure) but we finally got some very much needed sleep. 

Sunday was a nice and relaxing day, we didn't get up extra early, Aunt Kim had a nice breakfast ready for us and then we all hung out in our PJ's until past lunch.  It was time we desperately needed to recharge our batteries!!  Once we got motivated, dressed and repacked, we headed back to the Twin Cities, did a little shpping at Fleet Farm (of course) and then back to Larry's brother Erik's where we needed to start getting Larry packed for his trip back to Alabama.  Larry flew out Monday (getting delayed because of mechanical and weather issues) but he finally made it back down there around midnight, making it an even longer trip for him...but we are counting down the days until we can see him again in January!!

So, as you can see, we had a very eventful December getting things scheduled for a wedding, Christmas weekend and Larry's visit...and then some.  I hope you had a wonderful time with your family and friends as well.  Looking forward to 2011 and the changes it will bring for our family!!