The girls really are so good about not destroying the ornaments. Here E was telling N which ornaments she could and couldn’t touch.

Our Christmas celebrations got kicked off on an… interesting note. The plan was to leave for GB the Thursday evening before Christmas. I went to pick the girls up from school after work on Thursday and N’s teacher informed me that she had fallen and bit her tongue, but she seemed to be handling it fine. She seemed okay to me, so I didn’t think much of it and we headed home. By the time we arrived home and I got her out of the car seat, her mouth had started bleeding again (likely because of sucking on her pacifier). Anyways, we COULD NOT get it to stop bleeding. After a solid hour-and-a-half of her looking like a lion after dinnertime, I called the Dr and they suggested a popsicle. The cold helped restrict the blood flow (or something like that) and it finally stopped bleeding. It was now later than we planned on leaving, but oh well, we jumped in the car and headed for GB. The girls fell asleep soon after and they slept almost the entire way. I say ‘almost’ because we were about 45 minutes away from Grandma and Grandpa’s when we see the police lights behind us (M was driving). 🙂 We pull over and the red and blue flashing lights fill the car and wake up the girls. As the cop approaches M’s window, the girl’s cries begin and it turned out to be a blessing because I think the cop realized the poor timing of it all and just let us off with a warning. Oh, and I can’t fail to mention that we were only going 8 OVER in the first place. Anyways, we eventually made it, headed straight for bed and then spent all day Friday celebrating with M’s family.

The best present… we found out that Greg and April are expecting and due in July!

Elin and Gage were such an adorable/funny duo. They played together All. Day. Long. Here is Gage testing out his (fake) shaving kit on Elin. What else are cousins for?

Natalie also got to open a few birthday presents while we were there.

The ride back to KC on Christmas Eve morning was slightly less bloody and involved fewer cops.

After we arrived home early afternoon on Christmas Eve, the four of us just took it easy, baked some cookies, and watched some Christmas movies.  It was awesome.

When you asked Elin what she wanted from Santa, her response was always “To leave the presents outside”. When we went to see Santa, we informed him of this and he quickly pinkie swore her that he would just call Mom and Dad and ask us to bring the presents inside. Since Santa was being so nice to accommodate our special request, we of course, had to make sure we left him cookies on the front porch.

I just want to say to any future Elin or Natalie reading this… I get it. It is a creepy concept, and to be honest, I loved putting our own “Elin” twist on Christmas this year.



Nat wasn’t too in to Christmas this year. The photo below is one of the only presents that she actually helped to open. The poor thing wasn’t feeling well though, she ended up getting a fever Christmas afternoon and didn’t actually shake it until four days later.

After Christmas morning at our house, we headed to Lawrence to see the great-grandparents.

The day after Christmas was spent with Mom’s family at Nana and Papa’s. Poor Natalie still wasn’t feeling well.

Christmas this year consisted of four straight days of celebrations. It was exhausting (especially with Nat’s fever), but all of that quality holiday time with each other and extended family was well worth it.