Christmas Highlights

Pardon this post. It's a little overdue. It's a lot unorganized. I've been having trouble getting some of the photos I wanted to include uploaded, because as Joe says, we have a "shit ton" of photos and videos on a very old computer. So the post does a pretty poor job telling any sort of story; at least not one that you can follow chronologically.

It was Wren's 1st Christmas. Otto's 2nd. Max's 4th. Mine and Joe's 33rd and 36th. It was a great one. My Mom and Dad both came to Minneapolis. We enjoyed Christmas Eve at Joe's parent's house and Christmas day at our house. If the sheer volume of gifts from relatives are any indication of their love for us, we are all incredibly loved - especially Max, Otto & Wren. Some might just say spoiled. And I'm OK with that because I have the fondest memories of being spoiled with gifts and love, particularly at Christmas when I was a kid.

As expected, this is the best photo we have of all of us in one frame. I think we're all in our PJs - Max in his from the night before (plus stick-on tie). So if anything, it's telling that we were lucky enough to not have to leave our house on Christmas Day (family came to us!).

Grams, Auntie Jamie & Wren

Me & Wren

Wren's 1st Christmas

Babyccinos and ginger boy cookies

Loads of presents for the kids from all their aunts and grandparents.

Papa Mark and Wren

Making (& taking a bite out of) a gingerbread house

Grams and Wren

Papa Mark arriving for the Christmas weekend

Given that their plastic tool box and tools no longer cut it, Max & Otto are lucky to have a pretty crafty Dad. They both lucked out with a handmade tool box from Joe.

What's that you ask? Are those real tools? You bet. You see a saw? Me too. Hmmm.... Yes, someone thought it a perfectly normal idea to give the (1 & 3 year old) boys real tools, including a saw that cuts, pliers that pinch and drivers that screw holes. Oh, I know exactly what you're thinking. I'm thinking it too...We bring this on ourselves!!! What is "this"?? The crazy curiosity that the boys have. The non-stop tinkering and taking things apart. Sure, the boys will often sit still and play with one thing for awhile, but it usually results in some type of casualty. Take for instance...

Santa brought Otto a real (old, cheap), but working laptop because our (old, barely working) laptop is off limits to him. And somehow, within an hour and a half of waking up, Otto had plucked half a dozen of the keys off the laptop. Literally pulled them off with his bare hands. It utterly baffles me what he can disassemble.

In an attempt to wear all her Holiday finest, Wren wore several dresses on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. She was also a Sugar Plum Fairy once she tried on her tutu!