Christmas is only a few days away and the RSV (red sport vehicle) is loaded so we are set to start our 12 hours of drive time to Grandma and Grandpa's house in South Dakota! We spent the night at Great Grandma's house in Clear Lake Iowa (which just happens to be the half way point). Great Grandma had already left for her winter residence in Arizona so the boys took it upon themselves to make sure everything was okay in the Iowa house. She will be relieved to know that her organ is working fine.
Brian also made sure to light all of her candles. Don't worry Grandma, we made sure he put them all out before we left!
We made good time on the final leg of our trip and arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's house in good shape......or should we say, we arrived at their NEW house! They have been hard at work doing an addition onto their house. When we say "THEY" we do mean that the two of them have done the bulk of the work! It's amazing and they nearly doubled the size of their house! Photos' of that coming soon. Shortly after we arrived the weather forecast turned ugly. The weathermen started saying that we were in store for a Christmas snowstorm so we made a few changes in our travel plans. On December 22nd, Uncle Seth, Aunt Ann, Nolan, and Lauren came over for an early Christmas. Since Great Grandma moved to a new apartment which is located just a few blocks from Grandma and Grandpa, we got to spend the day with her as well which was wonderful! With our tummy's full from Grandma's cooking, Brian, Lauren and Uncle Seth sang a few Christmas tunes before we opened gifts.
Apparently Old Man Weather was listening to the weather forecast because on Wednesday afternoon, it started to snow.....and snow........and snow some more! Thinking that this might be our last change to get out of the house for a few days, that night we ventured out for some pizza. There were several arcade games by the exit and there was no way we were getting out of the restaurant without letting the boys "play" a few games so, there ya go!
As long as you have some extra provisions in the kitchen (which we did) and have a nice cozy place to be (which we had), being snow bound can actually be a lot of fun! All of the local church's had to cancel their Christmas Eve and Christmas Day services but that didn't stop us from celebrating on our own! We opened gifts Christmas Eve and as it turned out, there were a few new games under the tree that we enjoyed playing over the next few days!
We are happy to announce that even though the Interstates were closed, somehow Santa was still able to make his way through the storm to deliver gifts! Brian was even willing to share some of his toys and books with Grandpa!
We have an annual tradition that a group of our friends - (some we are related to and some not) and our kids pick a day in December and go on a group outing. For several years we took the train downtown to check out their window displays and tree at Marshall Fields/Macys. Last year we decided to try something new by going to Brookfield Zoo. The zoo is really decorated up with thousands and thousands of christmas lights so if the weather is even halfway decent, it makes for a beautiful late afternoon/evening! We did the same thing this year and once again, we all had a great time. It was a chilly night but it was easy to duck into a building to warm up while checking out the animals in that display. There was no way we were leaving without a carousal ride though!
