February is ALWAYS a crazy month for us. But never so crazy as it was in 2004 and 2006. It is hard to believe that 13yrs ago on the 5th of February Zander and Gavin were born… 10 weeks early and tiny little peanuts. Here we are, the parents of TEENAGERS! When did I blink and miss that one happening?

11yrs ago and at a much calmer pace we welcomed Emanuel into our family on February 3rd. He was my chubby eternally napping and happy baby. He still loves a good nap and has definitely thinned out! But still, where did the time go?

We have done the larger parties in the past, but this year we decided to go small. On the 3rd we had a mini celebration just for Emanuel. He got to open the small gifts from us, what Aunty Holly sent him from Canada, and any cards that came in the mail.

We had the dinner he requested – potato soup and dumplings, hung out together and had cupcakes for desert.

On the 5th we did the same for the twins. They chose sausage-strata. A breakfast casserole.

As an added gift we took the whole family to McDonald’s for breakfast after Sunday School. A very rare occurrence for this family of 7, eating out at a restaurant, fast food or no.

We also opened the bigger gifts which we the same for each of the boys.

Emanuel had an additional outing he requested – Aidan joined him and Ken to go see the new Lego Batman movie. And to go to McDonald’s for their appropriately themed Happy Meals. I am told it was all great amounts of fun.

And then after when Darcy and Andy came to get him we had MORE presents (so sweet) and hung out for a while.

Nothing hugely fancy, but I think we really felt like we celebrated properly. I love these 3 so much, watching them grow and change has been a great privilege, even with all the ups and downs.

We have not spent a Christmas in Minnesota since we were first married so this was a long time in coming and a day of HUGE excitement, even for Ken! We started our morning at the reasonable time of 8 am with Echo having to be WOKEN UP! Of course, she had not had much of a nap on Christmas Eve so it was not a huge surprise.

Luckily the Christmas pj’s managed to make it through the night unscathed so we had our cuties all dressed up and ready to start the presents.

The morning was set aside for our Canadian Christmas items… Of course Santa delivered with the wish lists. The biggest item of excitement ended up being (not surprisingly) the ps3 game Skylanders Giants. The boys had been talking about this game since the summer when we spent  that month or so with the Bleau family. It was a favourite of Logan’s. Santa’s presents were too big for the stockings (like Echo’s rocking moose or Trinity’s special toy trunk) so Santa let ME use the stockings.

The hats I made each of the kids went over well as did the little Pato inspired bird I crocheted. (Picture to follow later)

Add to that the lovely handmade creations from my sister Kat (South Carolina) and the pj’s from my dad and step mom and we were well outfitted.

There were also the toys from Uncle Wayne, the items mailed to us from Gammie AND the toys from James, Holly and Jimmie. It was Echo’s year to have the “some assembly required” toys. Although when all was said and done her little nursery center from her Aunty Holly and Uncle James and Jimmie was a total hit! As was her brand new Cabbage Patch baby. In fact, Trinity says that since she did NOT  get a dolly for Christmas she is going to use HER Christmas money to purchase a Cabbage Patch kid all her own.

Trinity ended up with her tea pot, cups and saucer set, fruit AND hat and was pleased with all! Echo LOVED her bunny… so I am feeling a bit accomplished with people LIKING my handmade gifts still.

We also gave Ken’s parents two strings of traditionally coloured lights to put on their tree… you know, the red, blue, yellow and green ones?

After all the excitement of the “Canadian Christmas” it was time for breakfast – sausagestrata and then tidying up because the cousins were on their way!

Of course we had to put Skylanders in and let the boys play and truly explore the presents we received that morning.

For the first time in YEARS I got my present ON Christmas… my very own Kindle Fire! It is so much lighter than the iPad but still has a lot of the tablet capabilities. So while I still need the iPad for a few things like the Apple IM I now have my own reader. I need to take some of my Christmas money and get myself a cover right away and then see about connecting to the library and start borrowing some books! Perhaps later in the year I can create a bit of a book budget???

Of course I had to dress the girls up. And have the boys in matching shirts.

Now on to the afternoon and presents from Nana and Baba… talk about MOUNTAINS! Santa was ALSO present in the form of amazing bags with each kid’s name on it. 7 kids with piles of presents wrapped and waiting… can you imagine the high energy? Seriously it was CRAZY!

There were so many wonderful gifts, Hello Kitty, a wall car set, a Little People Princess Castle with all the people for Echo. Although it was slow going with Echo… she would open a present and then want it ALL the way open before starting on the next.

 

There was candy and fun little quick items like glow bracelets mixed in with Legos and other wonderful items. Trinity was over the moon with ANOTHER Hello Kitty outfit. In fact, add to that the headband I purchased online from Facebook and she was head to toe in it once she took off her party dress.

After all the presents were opened and carnage of paper cleared it was a rush to get into every toy they could! I think everyone was rather pleased with what they received and very thankful. Soon after the paper clean up was done it was time to welcome the rest of the family coming for dinner – Johnson side! Jim, Judy, Robbie and Jessica. They came bearing MORE gifts… and pie!

 

 

We HAD TO open these new presents BEFORE supper, though at that point Miss Echo was already asleep for a much needed nap. The theme for the boys – remote controls… helicopters for the twins and a monster truck for Emanuel. Talk about wild excitement.

 

 

Trinity got Hello Kitty themed blocks (now she has two sets and is absolutely over the moon at having so many) and automatically collected her Aunty Faith AND Aunt Judy to help assemble.

 

After the presents were opened and paper away AGAIN it was time for supper… HAM! The tables looked beautiful yet again and we all ate until we were beyond full.

 

 

There was an assortment of deserts including our candy cane cake, this time… as CAKE!

Echo had her present time AFTER her nap (which was much needed)…

All in all everyone was pretty pleased. Though when asked Trinity stated that she got everything BUT a Cabbage Patch Doll (as I mentioned previously). Which is why we saved our Christmas money until AFTER Christmas… but that is a story for the next entry.