A Christmas Summary

December was a very hectic month for us at the Larsen house.  We all got hit with a bad cold around Thanksgiving that kept us down for the count for a couple of weeks.  Dave and I were also very busy at work so we felt a little crazed as we entered into the holidays.  We didn't get to do everything I would have liked - Dave only got some of the lights hung on the house, we didn't bake a single cookie and we didn't make it to the holiday carousel or zoo lights, but we did manage to decorate a gingerbread house which was a first for both me and Kate.

Our Christmas started off with the delivery of our very own Elf on the Shelf from Santa.  (It actually came from my one and only cousin Eric and his family who live in Ohio and whom we don't get to see often enough - pout, pout, pout).  Kate named our elf Freddy.  Freddy kept watch over Kate and Jack during the day and provided reports back to Santa each night on their behavior.

Apparently he gave Santa a good report and Freddy must have told him that we were headed to Colorado for Christmas, because Santa made an early stop at our house the weekend before to deliver Kate & Jack's gifts.  He brought Kate the Rapunzel Tower she had asked for and Jack received a Cozy Coupe car to ride in.  They were both thrilled!

After opening presents at our house, we headed over to Grandma Cecile's & Poppa Dave's house for an early Christmas celebration with them, Uncle Kevin, Aunt Kari & Uncle Jeff.  We all received many wonderful gifts and had a fun day hanging out with family.

On Christmas Eve, we hopped on an airplane and flew to Colorado.  Both kids did very well on the flight (thank goodness!).  After arriving at Grandma Linda & Poppa Mark's house, we had a delicious dinner and then left milk and cookies out for Santa before heading to bed.

In the morning, we woke up to Christmas celebration #3 with Grandma Linda, Poppa Mark and Uncle Josh!  We opened our stockings and had some breakfast.  Then we headed over to my Great-Aunt Mary's nursing home to open gifts with her.

After a nice visit, we returned back to Grandma & Poppa's house to finish opening our gifts.

So many wonderful things!  The weather in Colorado has been beautiful.  So later in the day, we took a walk outside in the sunshine.

And last of all, we finished out the day with a delicious turkey dinner. Yum!

Happy Holidays everyone!