What a wonderful, whirlwind Christmas. The Josephs family was back on the road for Christmas 2015 - it started with the kids and I when we hit the road the morning of December 23rd. We headed up to Green Bay while Daddy held the fort down at the office til noon.
When we got to Green Bay we had to make a quick shopping stop and then went to Grandma Mamie's to spend some time together. Grandma had a special snack in the "fun fridge" for the kids. How fun are these Seroogy's Chocolate bars with Pop Rocks in them?!
Once Daddy and most of the Duch family arrived we went over to the Tundra Lodge. This was a special Christmas treat from Grandma Mamie! We suited up and the kids jumped right in, brrr! I'll tell you right now that I spent most of my time in the hot tub! :)
We had some monkeys on our hands. These kids loved flying across the lilypads!
Nate:
Mads:
Nate, Mads & Claire:
Hot tub family selfie!
Then kids convinced the adults it was time for the slides. The kids suckered Daddy and Aunt Jill into riding with them... I used the camera as my excuse! ;)
Nick floats his way over after sliding down:
I can't believe how big these guys are!
Swimming Cuzzies!
Daddy & Nate after a slide down together:
BRRRR!
Too cute!
After we showered we headed back to Grandma's house. We had tacos for supper and then it was time for presents.
A present for Mads from the Duchs:
How awesome is this! It holds her ribbons!
Grandma went over to the Packer Pro Shop for the kids!
Adorable little Packer fan!
Yay!
Nate looks so big!
We gave Nick a John Deere sweatshirt.... Claire didn't get a shirt and she was sad.
Nate opened up some Star Wars Hero Mashers:
and then Claire finally opened up her John Deere sweatshirt.... now everybody is toasty and happy! :)
Nick got UNDIES!
Our sweet kiddos - couldn't love them any more!
Christmas Eve was a bit of a silly day. I had to leave Green Bay at 9:00AM in order to be to work in Monroe by 12:30. We had stayed the night at the Tundra Lodge and hit up the buffet at 8AM. We were celebrating Nathan's HALVSIES! He's officially 5 1/2!
I left on time while Andrew and the kids stayed to play. The kids were able to do more swimming on Thursday. Sounds like there were lots of fun shenanigans with Uncle Eric and also Mads was able to go down the slide alone!
The crew after swimming:
I worked until 7PM and Daddy and the kids got home around 8:30. They chose some cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.
Nate even put out a gluten free option. ;)
Christmas Morning! The kids woke up to see if Santa had stopped over and found that the cookies were gone as were most of the carrots!
Presents in the stockings!
After everyone had breakfast and were dressed it was time for presents. Merry Christmas!
They opened up the gifts in their stockings first:
and helped with Amelia's stocking:
The kids must've been super good this year - they each got a BONUS present from Santa! Mads got a Magic 8 Ball and Nate got a Nerf basketball hoop for his door:
Calendars for 2016!
Nate got what he asked for!
and so did Mads!
Star Wars Bladebuilders and a CD radio!
Daddy got a new Keurig in his favorite color, orange!
Drawstring backpacks to hold all the books they always tote around!
Mads made this super stinkin' cute door mat. It has snowmen made from her foot prints!
Nater made this beautiful Christmas tree wall hanging with buttons for ornaments!
I also got some beautiful bracelets, made with love. Each bracelet has one of the kids' initials and their fingerprint.
We went out to Amelia's spot and found that Santa had left her a magic wand in her stocking!
The kids helped to open up Amelia's present from Mommy & Daddy.
It was a book and the kids took turns reading it to Mia:
It was now time to head over to Grandma J & Victor's house! We found the Sodens already there! Nate and Michael had some fun playing toys:
and then Michael found a box lid and that was pretty fun too! ;)
Nathan got one of the coolest presents ever - a Packer football!
He could not stop throwing it! :)
Mads got a set of Boxcar Children books... they'll be read by the New Year! ;)
Whoa! Big box!
One for Mads too!
Precious! Mads and her baby cuzzie, Brantley:
Mads, Nate and the Soden Boys! <3 p="">
We had a tasty lunch at Grandma J's and then spent some time hanging out watching The Croods together. Around 4:30 we headed home and had a marathon of traditional Christmas movies - Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, and Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Mads was the only one who stayed awake through all 3 movies!
We had a fantastic Christmas - it was wonderful to spend some relaxing time together. We're not done yet - we have our Christmas with Grandma Jeff, Grandma Marie, Aunts, Uncles & cuzzies coming up in January! :)
Merry Christmas to all!
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