PattisBlessedFamily: January 2013

New Years Eve

WaFor the 2nd year in a row we spent New Year's Eve with our good friends the Franks. We always have such a good time with them and feel blessed to have great people in our lives. It's rare to find families where the kids get along, the husbands get along and the wives get along but we found that in the Franks!! We decided to go to Kobe this year because our kids love it so much when we go for birthdays and the Franks hadn't ever been there. We were lucky to get a reservation because it was so crowded. Ellie and Jack both love the shrimp toss and the big fire! Definitely one of our favorite places to celebrate special occasions! After dinner we went downtown to watch the fireworks. Well everyone but Jack. He was so tired from a bad night the night before that he fell asleep and missed all of the show! After we got home we did our traditional sparkling grape juice toast and stomped on bubble wrap and watched a little New Years Rockin Eve and then headed to bed! Thankful for wonderful blessings in 2012 and looking so forward to seeing what 2013 has to hold for our family!!!

Ellie and Miranda at Kobe

Kobe

Jack fell asleep on the way to the fireworks and missed the entire show :)

Watching the fireworks downtown

Up in time for our celebration

Cheers!

Happy 2013!!

Bubble wrap!

Christmas Eve/Day

Christmas Day 2012!!! Such a bittersweet day for us this year. I was so thankful that my entire family was able to be here so we could celebrate together. Christmas Eve was a little hard because that is the day that my family always celebrated. We go to church at my parents church and then go back to my parents house for dinner and presents. We definitely missed my dad but felt his presence. We laughed and cried as we reminised about years past and it warms my heart to know how happy he was watching down on us all together and celebrating together. So bittersweet. We did church at St Robert's with my family and then headed back for chili and presesnts. That night when we got home we did our final advent calendar day and put up the final piece of our Nativity book. Then the kids opened their one present---of course Christmas jammies!!-- and then we put out cookies and milk and carrots for Santa and the reindeer and Ellie wrote a note for Santa. We also sprinkled reindeer food on the front lawn so they would know where to go! Then the kids fell into deep sleeps because they were do overly-tired! Christmas morning they woke up around 8 and were jumping with excitement and anticipation. We had a nice morning opening gifts and having pancakes for breakfast. It is so relaxing not having to go anywhere or be away from our house on Christmas morning. I am always so blessed that we don't have to travel to be with our family over the holidays! We went to Dave's brother in the afternoon to celebrate with Dave's family and then back to my mom's for Christmas dinner. It sounds like a lot but it's really not. My kids always look forward to each place and are happy to be able to spend time with our family. With my family we played a ton of games this year. Ellie got a couple new games and then we got a family game called Awkward family photos which was just hilarious!! Definitely made us laugh which we needed a lot of this year. We also went ice skating downtown at the ConAgra rink and went bowling with my nieces. All in all we had a great holiday and were blessed to spend it together!!

More Christmas 2012

This is the 2nd year that Ellie's Brownie troop has done bell ringing for the Salvation Army. It was a pretty cold day this year but that didn't stop us from having fun singing songs and spreading Christmas cheer. We did it at Mangelson's again and it works out great so the kids can get hot chocolate at Farmhouse and go inside the store to warm up and get popcorn! I have such a great troop. They love giving back to the community! I love it!! We also did caroling again at an assisted living facility and they are so cute getting so into singing for the residents. It just warms my heart! The residents just love it and I think they are truly grateful for us coming to sing. This year our church did our own Christmas program because it is the first year that our church is on it's own. Ellie was so excited because she was chosen to play Mary!! She was ecstatic. She didn't actually have any lines but got to be on stage for most of the program. Her and Joseph were so cute and really took their roles very seriously. Jack was also in the program with the pre-k group and they sang a few songs. It was a great program and I so proud of our church for putting together such an awesome first program!! It was a delight!

Christmas Post

We have had a great month preparing for Christmas and the birth of our Lord Jesus. I absolutely love traditions and the holiday season is filled with them! I think I sometimes drive Dave crazy with my need to have so many traditions but hopefully he will appreciate them sometime! One of my favorite things to do during the season is go to the Durham Museum. We love to see the big tree, play in the trains and of course have a treat at the Soda Fountain. It's always a favorite activity of mine and the kids really like it too! This year the day we went was super busy so the line to see Santa was too long so we ended up going back another day so we could visit Santa. Another tradition I love is going to the Christmas tree farm to pick out our tree. Every year I think it would be so much easier to get an artificial tree but the thought of not going to be able to pick out our tree makes me too sad so we continue to drive out to Frosty Pines to get our tree! This year with our mild fall/winter so far we had awesome weather and the kids had a ball running around! The pick of trees isn't the best and I know would rather just go to Lowe's to get a tree but the memories we are making with the kids makes it totally worth it for me. Another tradition we started last year was taking the kids on a carriage ride downtown to see the lights at the Gene Leahy mall. This year we asked our friends to join us and had a ball! It was chilly but not too cold and the lights were beautiful. We had dinner first and then did the carriage ride. All 8 of us piled into one carriage so it was nice and cozy :) So much fun!! It's my new favorite tradition and I envision many more holiday carriage rides in our future! Another tradition we have is making our Gingerbread House. We don't actually make the house (I buy the kit at Michaels! Someday I hope to venture into making our own but for now the kit is perfect!) Dave puts it together and then we all decorate it together. Jack was really into it this year. It's so fun to think that a few years ago when we started decorating them Jack just sat on my lap and watched and this year he was all over the decorating!! Good times!

Picking out Christmas tree

At Frosty's Christmas tree farm

Western Heritage Museum

Soda Fountain at Western Heritage

Soda Fountain

Western Heritage Museum

Western Heritage

With ornament from Grandma

Ornaments from Grandma

Decorating Christmas tree

Hot chocolate while we decorate the tree

Decorating Christmas tree

Carriage ride

Decorating Gingerbread House

Carriage ride with the Frank's

Gingerbread House

Gingerbread House 2012

At Frosty's Christmas tree farm

Frosty's 2012

Picking out tree 2012

Catch up!!

Oh my....where have the last 2 months gone??? My poor blog has taken quite a hit :( In my defense it isn't all my fault. We are having major computer issues with our laptop which is the only computer that I can post pics from so I've been waiting for the computer to be fixed all the while making a list of blog posts that I need to catch up......well my "wonderful" husband who also happens to be the worlds biggest procrastinator hasn't taken the computer in so here it is already 2013 and I haven't even blogged about Thanksgiving....UGH!!!! Can you see that I am just a bit annoyed. Ok--enough venting. I am going to do a little catch-up here and then will add pics once the computer gets fixed. I will go back to November....
Girl's Day with Ellie---Dave decided to take Jack to a Husker game so Ellie and I decided to have a Girls Day out! We had so much fun. We went to Charleston's for lunch with my mom because she had a gift card. Ellie ordered steak! She has such fancy taste. She keeps asking when we get to go back! She loved it. Of course she has high class taste :) After lunch her and I decided to spend a couple of hrs shopping at Village Point. She needed a few clothes so off we went. She picked out a few cute things and then we decided to do some window shopping. Well we ended up at DSW and let me tell you...Ellie loves her shoes!! We ended up spending--I-kid-you-not--about 2 hrs in DSW trying on every pair of shoes she could get her hands on! She absolutely loved putting on the crazy high-heels that no one in their right mind should be walking around in. I did nothing but watch her try on shoes and take a few pics--she was in dreamland!! So much fun to have a girl to do those things with! Needless to say that was the extent of our window-shopping because it was late and dark by the time we got out of there so we had to head home. All in all a great day!!
Jack's Winter Program-- Jack had his school winter program during the mo of November. He was so excited for it and looked so handsome standing up on stage with his hat on!! My mom went with me and we both just couldn't get over how grown up he is looking and how fast the last 4 1/2 yrs have gone :( Don't even get me started on the fact that he will be doing Kdgt round-up this month..yikes!!

Thanksgiving--We had a nice Thanksgiving despite the fact that it was the first holiday without my dad. I was happy that mom decided to spend Thanksgiving in CA with my sister and brother for a change of pace. It was nice for her to get away and focus on other things. Back home Dave, the kids and I went to Dave's brothers house for Thanksgiving dinner. We had a nice time and felt blessed to be able to spend it with Dave's family. When we got home we read our "Thankful Jar" notes and boy do we have a lot to be thankful for! All in all it was a good day spent with lots of thinking about memories of my dad from Thanksgiving past's!