Legge Family Christmas

12-25

We woke up at Angie's on Christmas morning and saw that Santa had come! Surprise! Santa brought gifts for our kids at Angie's as well! How sweet and thoughtful! We got ready for the day and then packed up our things to make the move over to my mom and dad's house where we were planning to stay for the remainder of our time in MN. 

Christmas day was filled with cousins, visiting, lots of delicious food, a few kiddo games in the afternoon, a Christmas program (including songs sung by Swensons/Edwards' kids from church, piano playing from Charlie, Drew, and Tanna, and a spontaneous Christmas carol sing-along where I played the piano and we sang 6-8 songs together), opening gifts, and Christmas goodies. It was a fun day! 

Rustand family picture

Grandma, Grandpa, and their 10 grandchildren. 

My mom set up a few games, this one involving hooking candy canes with another candy cane and putting them into a bowl. It was fun and pretty easy until there were only a few candy canes left. Then it got tricky! 

I found these matching leggings at JCP for super cheap (under $2/pair). I then found $4 clearance shirts to coordinate with the leggings and BAM! A little bit of matchy matchy for my three girls! Love Molly's face in this one!

I had Charlie jump in there to join his sisters but they were kinda done with pictures by that point. 

On to the next game - cup stacking!

Charlie played the piano and did an excellent job. 

Time to open some gifts!

Once Alanna opened this Boogie Board from Grandma and Grandpa, it NEVER LEFT HER HANDS. It has some kind of technology where you draw on it with a plastic pen revealing rainbow colors underneath whatever the top layer is. To erase it, you press a button and it flashes clean. It's kindof amazing and right up Alanna's alley.

Isn't this dishwashing station the neatest thing ever? The faucet is battery operated so it pumps actual water from the bottom of the basin. Molly (and her cousins!) had a great time with it!

At bath time that evening, Maylen, Molly, Leah, and Hattie all got in at the same time. Four girls in a tub!! It was a little tight (those 4- and nearly-4-year-old limbs were everywhere!) but it was pretty precious. Also worth noting: don't they all look soooooo different? 

Charlie took on Kathy in an epic game of Battleship, a new game he opened that day. So fun!

Big Rustand Family Christmas

We were planning to leave for Minnesota on Thursday around dinnertime, but due to some weather, we left Friday morning at 4AM instead. We drove a bit of a different route going straight east from Colorado Springs into Kansas a bit before going northeast up toward Nebraska. One of the funny things that happened on the drive is that we were traveling at the same time as Nathan and Amanda so we were texting and bemoaning the driving while on the road together. Amanda had texted me the day before and said in a semi-joking matter, 'Let's meet for lunch in Omaha'! It was so funny, but then once we actually thought about it, we WERE going to be on the same trajectory and could actually (at least, possibly) make that work! So we texted back and forth; when they were in Omaha, we were just leaving Lincoln. When the Davises were in Sioux City, we were an hour south. Finally, when Nate called and said they were in Brookings, we were just 30 minutes away, so they ate dinner and got gas (stalling but not stalling at the same time) and we met them at McDonald's! It was so much fun!! The kids chatted while we adults chatted and it was a lovely 30 minutes spent with our friends who happen to be related to us!! We love the Davis family!

As for the rest of the traveling, both Matt and I were pleasantly surprised at how well the kids did traveling during the day like that. They watched a lot of movies, that's for sure! When we left at 4AM, we woke the kids up and they checked to see if Santa came during the night (he did!) and then brought their presents with them in the car. The big three eventually fell back asleep but Hattie never did! In fact, she didn't fall asleep until around 1:30ish when I instituted mandatory quite time in the van for 2 hours. No screens, no tablet, just books, dolls, and a time to nap if you choose. It was wonderful. Hattie took a 90-minute nap during that time which was much needed. We made it to Fergus that night around 10:15 and everyone was still awake when we arrived. I was hoping they would all be awake so that worked out well! Country Grandma was still up and greeted us at the door. Another Minnesota Christmas!

We spent the first night at Mark and Jean's house and then the next two nights at Angie and JP's. We had never stayed there before so it was a fun new experience! On Saturday, we spent the morning at Mark and Jean's, and then I spent a few hours at my parents alone on Saturday afternoon. We all ate dinner together before greeting Goulds when they arrived just after dinner. Then we loaded up and drove over to Angie's to sleep. Matt, Angie, and JP had a really nice time visiting while Hannah, Grace, and I played a game of Life after Joe went to bed. The next morning, Christmas Eve, we took our time getting ready for the day and then went over to Country Grandma's around 10:30. And now the story continues...

12-24

We celebrated Rustand family Christmas on Christmas Eve. We did all the usual things; lots of together time, a ton of excellent food, dozens of Christmas cookies, the traditional Christmas program with lots of singing and performances, opening gifts, and more together time. One things we DIDN'T do was take a group picture! :( We took this family picture in the morning before the day got away from us and I'm wishing I would have thought of the group pictures a little bit later in the day. 

Grace orchestrated several games for the kids during the afternoon. She had a very detailed plan and spent probably two hours walking the participants through both group and individual games. They ended with a scavenger hunt throughout Grandma's house. I think it was fun for everyone!

And now commences the Christmas program! This is the closest thing to a group shot that was taken. :( All the kids singing a Christmas carol was pretty cute.

Hattie kept trying to have her own portion of the show. Adorable. 

Charlie played Jingle Bells on the Polejewski's keyboard. 

New this year, Jean arranged for a Santa to come for a visit. Each child (that wanted to) got a chance to sit on Santa's lap. Santa passed out gifts to each child as well as an ornament with their names on them. We adults bought, wrapped, and brought a gift for each of our kids and put them in a black bag that he picked up right before he came into the house. 

Now on to gift opening! 

Charlie's gift-opening face is HILARIOUS. He's pretty BTW about the whole thing!! 

Hattie was so obsessed with Lucy while we were in Fergus. She wanted Lucy to be inside nearly always so Hattie could pet her! She is a really nice and surprisingly calm lab, thanks to her owner who has trained her well. 

Second Grade Christmas Party

12-21

Both Charlie and Alanna's classes had pancake parties on the last day of school before Christmas break. There was a surplus of parents who offered to help with Alanna's class party so I signed-up to help in Charlie's classroom. I haven't spent enough time in each of their classes so I was looking forward to it. Molly and Hattie went to play at Anita Miller's so I could be at school by myself. It was a fun party! Mrs. Powley set up a pancake bar and all of the kids brought in pre-made pancakes or various toppings for the pancakes. The adults helped kids through the line and got everyone their pancakes and then the kids played a few games. The party was wrapped up by about 9:15-9:30 in the morning. The rest of the morning was spent doing some fun Christmas-themed work and the whole school participated in MoviePlex in the afternoon. Charlie chose to watch Despicable Me 3 and Alanna watched Moana. Once I was done helping in Charlie's class, I peeked into Alanna's classroom and found the kindergartners partnered up with their fourth grade reading buddies working on a foam gingerbread house craft. I snapped a pic of Alanna and her buddy Ellie before heading out. We were set to leave for MN that day after school but due to weather, we ultimately decided to leave Friday morning at 4AM instead. I ran an errand or two before going to pick up Molly and Hattie from their friend's house. It was great!

 A game of hot potato with a stuffed Christmas bear. 

 Charlie's class has some fun and different seating options! I have no idea how they decide who gets what or how often they trade, but I love it!

 Charlie and his buddy Zach Miller

 The second graders were also asked to bring in a small gift for each of the students in the class - all 27 of them! I panicked a bit but then we started thinking about things that you can get in multi-packs at Dollar Tree and then it made more sense. Charlie got everyone little spiral notepads. The kids were instructed to bring in a stocking to keep in the classroom, so as the kids brought in their gifts, they stuffed them into the stocking. Charlie got some candy, some homemade bath bombs, a container of slime, pencils, and an assortment of trinkets and toys. He was thrilled!

 Alanna and her 4th grade reading buddy doing a project together. 

 Oh, and earlier in the week, there were a few Christmas shows on TV that the kids watched before bed. Fun!