Pretty much every Christmas Eve my mom's side of the family gets together at my cousin Phil and his wife Maggie's house for tacos, a Shabuck tournament, and opening presents. Most years we drive to Eau Claire a few days or the day before Christmas Eve, then head to the Cities with my parents. This year though we wanted to spend more time in Ashland as a family before and after the holidays to keep Lilly in more of a routine and get our own work done.
We left Wednesday morning and stopped in Duluth at the Aquarium. We were avoiding letting Lilly know too many of the details about the holidays (after she woke up at 4:00 AM ready to leave at Thanksgiving) but Nick let the plan of going to the aquarium slip early. So every day, "we go to the carry-um today?".
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| Listening to her first book on CD |
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She spent lots of time pretending to sail. I got pretty bored.
I did enjoy when she put on both lifejackets. |
Then we headed to the Bangert's house for Christmas Eve traditions and fun. The drive down Lilly did her typical tremendous fight against sleeping in the car. She is adamant she does not nap in the van. Eventually she did fall asleep though and didn't wake up until we got to the Bangert's house. We quickly learned that not telling Lilly was probably a mistake, she didn't want to get out of the car for the first twenty minutes or so we were there. Nick stayed in the car with her and read books. Then she came inside and read books with me and eventually warmed up and played with family members. (I will attribute the following photos to my mom and dad, I did not bring in my phone or camera).
My family likes to play games, so a rousing game of Telestrations was had while Lilly was coming out of her funk. The game is pretty fun (we played it later with Nick's parents and brother and sister-in-law and Dianne would completely disagree with the statement that the game was fun), one has to draw a picture, the next person guesses and writes down what they think it is, then the next person draws it, etc. Lots of laughs were had.
After games it was time for dinner, tacos. Not a typical Christmas Eve meal, but we all like them, people can adapt them for their own tastes, and the responsibility of fixings easily divided among everyone.
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| Lisa and Ben make their tacos |
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| Cleaning up the kitchen (I actually look pregnant in this photo) |
I remember growing up hating the time between dinner and cleaning up after the meal. Once the dishes were done, leftovers put away, then we could finally open presents. It is kind of fun to be on the other side of that now and watching the other kids impatiently waiting for everything to be cleaned up so they can open presents. Then the grown ups sat around and kids passed out the presents.
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| A combination of presents for Lilly, Baby Owl, and me left me quite buried. |
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| I love the serious expression with the bows on her face. |
Unfortunately this year we did not have a Shabuck tournament (a game my grandpa made, the goal to slide small round wooden discs toward rectangular slots at the end of a table - the goal to get five per slot, with the two extras in whatever slot you want). Time just got away from us and no tournament. There is a trophy that is passed on every year the new winner, so last year's winner (Phil I think) gets to hold on to it one more year.
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| Family Photo |
Lilly did not sleep on the car ride back to Nick's parents' house. We left in the dark and didn't get back to Eau Claire until 10:00 at night, but the girl did not sleep one wink in the car. Did she cry? No. Did she fuss? No. She just played with some toys, had us tell her stories and sing songs. So minus that whole not sleeping bit, she did really well, especially considering it was her third car trip of the day.
Christmas morning we headed over to my parents' house for more present opening and fun. My grandma travels with my parents back to their house most years after Christmas Eve and spends a few days hanging out. It is always great to spend more time with her and have our double solitaire tournaments. This year we only got one game in but I won (which is unusual).
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| Playing with her new chef's outfit (thank you Bangert family!) and the kitchen at my parents' house |
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| Dancing |
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| This flexibility never ceases to amaze me. |
I swore I had taken a few other photos of the immediate Kuchta/Little/Robertson present opening and festivities, but either I did and deleted them because they were blurry or didn't. So, oh well. Guess these are what you get.
It was great spending time with family. We laughed, caught up, played games, crafted, and just had a wonderful time together. Lilly did exceptionally well with present opening, frequently asking if it was her turn but never crying, fussing, or trying to open presents early. She usually said thank you for the present and many of them she started to play with right away.
This photo was taken on the 26th or so, but since it fits in with this side of the family, I thought I would put it here. My grandma and parents came over to Nick's family's house for dinner and we took a four generations photo. The only decent one of the four of us included Lilly's tongue sticking out. For the second, we all stuck out our tongues.
In a few days I hope to have a Robertson Christmas post - a three day extravaganza with comings and goings of the different Robertson boys.
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