Christmas 2012

Happy New Year blog readers! Duane, Olivia and I hope you all had as wonderful of a holiday season as we did! We've had a whirlwind couple of weeks but it was worth it. On Friday, December 21, we hit the road for our annual Christmas quest. Since Liv is now using the potty, we decided not to attempt 12 hours in one day. We stopped in Tinley Park (which is outside of Chicago) and stayed with our friends, the Szafranski's. On the way, I think we stopped about 4 times in between St. Paul and Madison, WI - which is only 4 hours. We had pizza with the Szafranski family, the kids played in their basement and then the little ones went to bed. Dave, Julie, Duane and I were up until midnight talking about what all grown-ups talk about - Disney World! (They were just there for a vacation and we are planning a Disney vacation in 2013!)

On Saturday morning, after some homemade pancakes and treats from Dunkin Donuts, we hit the road for Indianapolis. Our friends Brian and Stephanie have a beautiful, new home in Carmel and we needed to see it. We had a great lunch with them and Olivia fell in love with their 2 cats, Pippa and Fred. Once it was time for Liv's nap, we hit the road again for the final 3 hours left of our journey. We rolled into Ferdinand around 5pm and my parents and Alex and GG were there to greet us. It was a relief to be at the end of the drive and hearing, "I go potty" every 45 minutes! :)

Sunday we took it easy and Olivia entertained everyone with her antics. We celebrated Christmas on Sunday evening with Duane's family. We had roast beef, mashed potatoes, carrots, salad, bread and delicious homemade sugar cookies! Olivia was quiet and wasn't too into opening gifts but wow did she get some great new toys!

stroller and baby in the background....she's ripping into the crib!

a new laptop

Where's Olivia?! Oh, she's in her new tent!


Christmas Eve was quickly upon us and we had a wonderful lunch with my mom's side of the family. Olivia was quite scared of my uncle Kenny but she eventually warmed up to him by the end of the afternoon. After lunch we opened presents and then most of us took a much needed nap. For some reason, Olivia was waking up super early every morning and that meant we all were, too....

helping Grandma bake cookies

opening up a gift from Great Uncle Ken and Great Aunt Jan - it was a kittie!

Great-Grandpa Kraus gave Olivia a Doctor's kit! She was checking everyone's heart beat.

Libby, my Dad, GG, Alex, Ken, Duane, my mom, Jan, Grandpa Kraus and Abby and Olivia

watching 'Sofia the 1st' on Grandma's new iPad 

Duane, Olivia and I headed to his Grandma Gogel's house after everyone had a nap and a snack. It took Liv some time to warm up but she found one of Duane's Grandpa's old school buses and quickly played on the floor with the bus. As Liv's bedtime loomed ahead of us, we headed back to my mom and dad's house. Before Liv went to bed, we made sure we left some food for Santa's reindeer and made a plate of cookies and juice (Liv said no milk. Juice!) for Santa. Duane stayed home with Liv while the rest of us went to midnight mass at the convent.

On Christmas morning, we all woke up so excited to see Olivia's reaction and it was very anti-climatic. She wasn't as into it as we were expecting her to be so we just started opening up our gifts so she could see the fun we were having. Eventually she warmed up and got into the spirit! Santa brought Olivia a bike, a puppy and a Disney princess book. Grandma and Papa gave her money, shoes, a horse, baby accessories, clothes and probably more - I just can't remember it all!

Santa brought a puppy!

and Santa brought a new bike!

her very own "wobe" from Alex and GG 

 

paint set from Alex and GG

After all the gift opening, we had a big breakfast with mimosas and then we lounged around the house. Before the lethargy kicked in, we packed up Liv and took off for the Ferdinand State Forest for a walk. Later that night Duane and I had another family party and then it was time for bed - we had such a busy and fun Christmas Day!

What did we wake up to on the 26th?! Why - it was the "Blizzard of 2012!!!" HA! I slept in that morning and when I came downstairs, my dad was still at home - the bank was on a 2-hour delay. I looked out the window and said, "but I can still see your grass." An hour later he received another call to say the bank was closing. Duane and I laughed all day and we're still laughing. I guess we think we're so tough coming from Minnesota but come on! We "braved" the dry road conditions and ran to Jasper for some much needed groceries. That night was the Potter family get-together and it was great! Olivia got to meet so many people but she was too busy playing with the Pund girls' toys.

On the 27th we took advantage of the snow before it melted and went sledding with Liv. She absolutely loved it and kept asking for more when we had to stop. We're now in the habit of giving her warnings before we end something to try and avoid meltdowns. So, I warned her, "you have 2 more times." She flew down the hill on the sled, face planted in the snow, popped up and screamed: "1 MORE TIME!" Later that evening, we went to Evansville for my birthday dinner at Shing Lee; it was good but it was no Lucky Dragon. We did get to see Pauline, the owner of the Lucky Dragon when it was open so that was fun.

The 28th was Duane's annual shrimp boil. The Augspurgers came up from Indy so it was fun to see them again. It snowed again that night and it was a beautiful snow - huge flakes!

she loves to see me ride that horse....

catching snowflakes before bedtime

I can't remember what we did on the 29th but the 30th was my birthday! For my birthday, I wanted to take a walk at the Ferdinand State Forest and then have Homestead Pizza for dinner with angel food cake and Blue Bell ice cream. It was a great day - I even worked in a nap and some reading!

this is how we had Liv go on the road - I wanted to avoid nasty gas station/rest-stop bathrooms - she LOVED this!

On the 31st, we were packed up and hitting the road at 9am. We drove up to Schaumburg, IL and stayed the night in a hotel. We walked around the Woodfield Mall (torture because I couldn't really shop) and then picked up dinner to go from Cheesecake Factory. We had dinner in our room and then Olivia and Duane hit the pool! We were a little white trash and had Liv swim in her undies.... She was jumping into Duane's arms and even kicking her way across the pool. She was asleep around 9pm and Duane and I were asleep by 10pm - happy new year! :)

 

Our drive on New Year's Day seemed to go on forever! We were back home at 5:00pm and then it was a whirlwind of unpacking, dinner and getting ready to start the week back at work and school. Thankfully, Olivia eased back into school just fine. The teachers said all the kids were fine - they thought the kids were ready to be back! I know I wasn't ready for work! I'm looking forward to getting back into our routine this weekend and taking down our Christmas decorations. I hope everyone's year has started out well!