More Christmas

We got together with Nate's family after church one Sunday to celebrate Christmas.  The boys always look forward to spending time with their cousins and we were happy that Grandma Josie was able to celebrate with us, too. 

 

While Grandma Jo read the Christmas story from the Bible, the kids assembled the nativity figurines.  Henry had the heavenly hosts.

Walter waited all year to have the star.

With the cousins before opening presents.

Charlotte, Megan and Lauren

Oh the excitement - Legos!  (With cousin, George)

 

Henry and Walter were thrilled to get Cobi military sets (tanks and army jeeps) and wooden swords (that have gotten a lot of use so far).  Earlier in the month, Grandma Jo took us on an trip to a boys' adventure toy store.  We had lunch together and then looked at all the fun toys.  They pretty much zeroed in on their favorites within 5 minutes...

Opening stockings:  There were clementines, chocolates, and other candies.  It just so happens that Walter is a clementine man - he eats 3 before bedtime each night.

With Grandma and Grandpa



According to my camera, we finally got around to opening presents at our house on New Year's Eve.  The boys wanted to open presents by the dining room tree.  After Dottie pulled the living room tree over, we moved all the ornaments to this tree...and made sure they weren't on the bottom branches.  The men were pretty patient with me - I was trying to get one great picture - but I eventually had to give up.

May not be perfect pictures, but I sure love these two.

Finally - opening presents.

 

And a few days later:

Walter and Dottie relaxing

Henry and his favorite shirt (parting with it will be difficult but the sleeves are getting a little short).

 

Building a fort...

...and another one.  They brought down pillows, blankets and lots of other stuff from the bedrooms to get this fort just right.

 

Henry is growing as a reader.  I love finding him curled up with a good book (this one was Dr. Seuss).

Looking pretty comfy.

History Museum

The boys and I spent the day after Christmas with our friends at the History Museum.  Henry and Walter have been asking to go for months and when I mentioned it to my friend, Kristi, she suggested we all go together.  There were lots of great exhibits to learn from and it was fun, too!

 

Noah, Henry, Parker, Walter, and Ryan

Trying out the school desks in the "Then, Now, Wow" exhibit.

Parker, Henry, Brooke, Kristi and Melanie resting while the others ran through the climbing area set up as a grain elevator.  They enjoyed having a few minutes to get rid of some extra energy.

This was a cool display.  You could take the bison's bones and organs out, scan them and learn how the Native Americans used them in day to day life.  Pretty interesting!

 

Putting everything back together.

 

Henry and Ryan are the oxen and Parker is at the plow.  The sod house was a big hit, but I didn't get any pictures of them checking it out.



Noah driving the streetcar.

 

Next stop:  MN's Greatest Generation Exhibit

Packing ammunition shells on the assembly line.

With Henry and Noah (and a tank)

They also enjoyed the C-47 combat flight recreation.  

Visiting the Soda Fountain.  They thought the rotary wall phone and

cash register were very interesting.

A quick break in the old chairs from the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport.

They had so much fun in the Then, Now, Wow Iron Range mine that we went back again.

   Walter dropping in the last stick of dynamite.  He was trying to get out of there as fast as he could.

"BOOM!"

Melanie and Walter 

 

Back to the Then, Now, Wow and Grain Elevator.  Walter and Henry found the history of MN and the Native Americans very interesting.  They had lots of good questions.  These are Henry's pictures:

I just remember feeling very tired at this point!

 Brooke and Noah being goofy.

 And on last try at a group picture before heading home.

Christmas Twice

We drove to Wisconsin for Christmas Eve.  Grandma Bakkel sold her house recently, so this was the first time we all stayed at a local place to celebrate.  I think the boys had fun seeing their cousin Ella and running up and down between rooms to visit everybody.  The time went so quickly, but we were thankful for the opportunity to get together and see Great-Grandma, too.  To top it all off, we had a beautiful snow on Christmas Day...which made for a dicey drive but we made it back to Grandma and Grandma L's house to celebrate that night.

 

Sitting with Dad before reading Luke 2 and opening presents.

Walter took this picture of Aunt Gayle.

Walter passing out presents - they both thought this part was lots of fun.

Ella with her grandma.

Checking out the Lego set he'd "wanted forever!" (and then decided to return before promptly changing his mind and running upstairs to open and assemble it!)



Ella and her mom

 

Assembling Lego sets with Mimi Megan.

Christmas night at Grandma and Grandpa L's house.

Looks like they were pretty disappointed with these gifts, huh?

It's a frequent event to hear Walter whisper in my ear, "Mom, pretend I'm Indiana Jones, okay?  You're Maria ('Mary-uh,' otherwise known as Marion)..."  He had a homemade whip and bag for his Indiana gig, but he was in need of a belt that fit and a hat.  Look out!

More Lego work with Dad.

Mimi Erin joining in on some Lego assembly time.

Grandma opening her gift.

More Phone Pictures

I found a few pictures on my phone that I forgot about...

 When Nate was hunting in S.D., we stayed overnight at Grandma and Grandpa L's house on Saturday.  The Mimis took Henry and Walter to see a movie and I did some Christmas shopping.  That night the boys had a sleepover and watched "101 Dalmatians" while I meet my friend Mary for dessert (A huge "Thank you" to my family for giving me a some time away!).

Walter took a few pictures of Dottie by the tree.

 

While Henry was at school Dottie, Walter and I got out the sled and played in the snow.

 

Fast-forward to December 20, the boys decided they were ready for their own library cards.  Here they are signing their names.