The past month

We been so busy the past month...I forget to get on the blog and write about it. We had a memorable Christmas. We were in Omaha on Christmas Eve. Jeff had to work, but the kids and I spent the day finishing up on some last minute errands. We did a little shopping, wrapping, and even went to get a bit of lunch together! After Jeff got home we went to church for the candle light service. Everyone thought it was beautiful. When we got home from church, Santa had been to our house and left the kids some nice gifts. We decided to open our family gifts and the gifts from Santa while dinner was warming up. We stopped the merriment to eat some yummy ham then we continued with the gift opening and playing. After a while we thought it would be best to start packing for our Wisconsin holiday. We packed and loaded the van for our trip to our family.

Christmas morning we headed to Lake City, MN to have Christmas dinner with Jeff's brother (John) and his family. We had a great visit and enjoyed ourselves. After a few hours we continued our trip to Viroqua, WI. The weather was bad and the roads were worse. We added about 45 minutes on to our trip because of weather. We arrived at Grandma and Grandpa Primmer's and were so glad to see them.

The next morning everyone played in the snow. We had fun sledding, throwing snowballs, and making a huge snowman (with help from Grandpa's tractor!).

Jaci's brother (Don) and his family arrived and we played in the snow some more. More snowman were created and a few more snowballs were thrown. We enjoyed another great meal and opened some gifts. We ended the night with some cards for adults and movies for kids. Don and Rachel had to head back home that evening, but it was great they could spend some time with us.

Due to winter weather we decided to head to Ellsworth a little early for the Gruber Christmas. Again, the kids had a blast with their cousins. Great food, generous gifts, wonderful memories. My sister - in - law (Beth) and I made a trip to IKEA with the 9 year olds (Jackson and niece, Erin). Yes, we are in love with IKEA!!!!

The next day I had to take Jeff to the airport so he could get back to Omaha to work. It was nice that he could take the ConAgra jet home....and not fly commercial! I went to see my niece - Abby's basketball game in Lake City...then went to see my sorority sisters. We had our yearly winter get together. I loved spending time with my sisters!

The following day (I'm thinking we are to Tuesday, December 30 now)...I went to see Abby play ball again.....then I went to meet up some high school friends who live in the Twin Cities. I haven't seen some for 12 years - the others since we graduated (22 years ago). It was a wonderful visit at a great Irish pub in Minneapolis. I felt like I could have talked and re-lived the "Glory Days" for a few more hours.

Since winter break the kids have been keeping us busy. Jackson is in another choir for the school district. That makes 3 choirs for him....church, school, and now this district one. Jenna is busy with a new barbie house my dad made for her. Joe is busy always doing homework - or playing on his computer....(which we took away from him due to the 'teenage attitude'). My dad is here and continues to refer that this is my payback for my own evil teenager days.

Since my dad has been visiting we've got a few things off of our 'to do' list. We have new curtain tie-backs in our bedroom, our dishwasher is semi-fixed, we now have a programmable thermostat.....and the kids are loving having Rusty around. He is my dad's golden retriever. The boys fight over whose room Rusty gets to sleep in at night.

Jenna has some medical things going on with her bladder and reflux that I will post about - later.
Jeff is busy with class and homework. I'm busy driving everyone around and driving myself crazy some days.

The good news......there seems to be more and more sunlight each day - that means summer isn't too far away.

:0) Later