NEW Family Traditions

This year Corey and I spent a lot of quality time with our families. We started celebrating Christmas on Friday night and didn't end until today, Wednesday. Family means the world to us and we couldn't have asked for a better gift than lots of fun with all of them.

Friday night Jackie and I (with some help from Corey and Todd) made some Christmas cookies. It was a great start to a wonderful Christmas...

Saturday Corey and I spent the day finishing last minute gifts for everyone. Corey used his wood crafting talent and made a lot of gifts this year. (Hopefully he'll post some of his work on his blog soon.) We spent the night watching Christmas movies at the Brower's and enjoyed staying up late.

Sunday was filled with Christmas at my mom's with my sisters, Brian and Parker and Summit. We were addicted to playing bowling on Natalie's new Nintendo Wii. Way to go Brian...he got the highest score! My mom, Natalie, Corey and I decided to head out in the snow storm and see the Holidazzle Parade in downtown Mpls. It was very COLD but beautiful...the snow was falling the entire time we were there. We drove to the Mall of America and took the Light Rail Train downtown. It was a lot cheaper than paying for parking. Plus, it was my mom's first ride on the train. After the parade we made our way to Macy's to check out the Nutcracker display and get a gingerbread cookie. AWESOME!

Monday was Christmas Eve and this year we spent all of our time at the Brower's. Almost everyone from Nora's side was present...even Bryen, Chris and the girls. This year everyone brought white elephant gifts and they were a hit! Corey ended up with a honey pot and I received some ugly ornaments. The cookies Jackie and I made were also a hit along with the gallon of frozen margaritas I had. Corey and I went to 11:00pm church service and were joined by Mom and Dad B., Mom L., and my sister Natalie. It still gives me goosebumps to sing Silent Night at the end of the service in candlelight. It's so peaceful.

Christmas Day was spent at two places. First the Brower family breakfast and gift opening (in our pajamas.) and then to my grandpa and grandma's for a late lunch. It was a little busy, but we still felt that we had lots of time to sit, talk, and catch up with everyone.

Today we were with my dad and Kathy. We enjoyed each others company and found out all the details to my dad's move to Arizona. We're trying to plan a time to go down and visit him at his new house. (Good Luck with your closing dad! We can't wait to come and see your new 'winter getaway.')

Corey and I had a long Christmas week, but have enjoyed every bit of it. It was nice to take it easy and spread out the time we had with our families over a period of days rather than cramming it into one.

We were spoiled again by getting everything we wished for.

We're looking forward to using one of our gifts this weekend. We're attending Louie Anderson's comedy show at the Northrup on Saturday. We're excited to share some more laughs with the Brower's.

Here are some highlights from our six day Christmas Extravaganza...