January 2020

January 2020

The rest of Christmas break was spent at home; undecorating for Christmas, taking Charlie to basketball practice, playing with new things at home, etc. I love the long Christmas break from school. 

And now, happy 2020! I'm not one for New Year's resolutions because I don't think I've ever succeeded in keeping a single one. However, this year, I think I might be able to do it. I want to run a 5k every month in 2020. Seems simple enough, right? I started off the year with the Resolution Run on 1.1.20 and it took me over 50 minutes to run 3.1 miles. As an added humbling bonus, I was passed by a walker. So that was fun. Whatever, man. I wanted to run solidly for the whole thing and I did that. Slow as a turtle, yes, but I did it! 

Alanna got to go ice skating as part of her December Wolf of the Month award the second day back to school after Christmas break. Nurse Jody Enderle sent me a picture of Alanna on the ice! Cute!

On 1.18, we went to a retirement party for Matt's (former) coworker, Dave Gilbert. His party was at the VFW in town, a place we had never been to before. The kids and I hung together while Matt socialized his way through the group - he knew a LOT of people there and I hardly knew anyone, so I sat at the kids table. :) Ha! Actually, Emily Latta came to town for the party and she stopped at our house for a few hours on Saturday afternoon. It was really fun to see her and catch up a bit before going to the party where it would have been hard to talk to her for any length of time. As far as retirement parties go, Dave's was really nice. Glenda Torres and Linda Skinner did a really nice job planning the event; cute table décor, yummy food from Pizza Madness, and things for kids to do (butcher paper and crayons at the tables). A few people got up to speak and Dave gave a rather lengthy but very well done speech that walked us through his career and highlighted people in attendance along the way. It was a really nice party. I know it will be different not having Dave right next to Matt's cube, but I'm fairly certain they will still get together to hunt. 

All three kids came downstairs wearing red school shirts one day - matchy, matchy! Of course, when the school requires a uniform, there isn't a lot of options... ! Tylee's mom Sabrina (also our neighbors) sent me these pictures of the girls doing an art project at school. Hattie wanted to do a cute Valentine's day craft so we made a little heart caterpillar together. She was so proud of it! Lastly, Molly's kinder class put on a rainforest experience at the end of January. The kids all did projects and decorated the room super fancy. Mrs. Jarvis added a fog machine for effect and set out a table of fruit and other products that come from the rainforest for us to enjoy at the end of the rainforest scavenger hunt. Molly told us all about tree frogs, sloths, spider monkeys, and a bunch of other animals. It's an adorable event! 

Oops - one more! Hattie had a hard time falling asleep one night so I got to rock her in the rocking chair. Precious little thing fell asleep on me. It was so sweet. 

New Year's Eve

I got Alanna these curlers for Christmas and there was enough extra to do Molly's hair and a few in Hattie's hair. Aren't they adorable?! They're super easy to use and I think they're a little more comfortable than the ol' foam rollers. 

This year, we wanted to ring in 2020 in a special way, so we ALL stayed up until midnight and watched the ball drop! Happy New Year! We had a dance party (by doing Just Dance videos on YouTube), we ate Christmas cookies and had sparkling cider, we watched a movie, and we turned on the tv just in time to see the ball drop ringing in 2020. I was so surprised that the kids made it all the way to midnight! We started Hotel Transylvania around 10:30pm and I thought for sure that the kids would doze off during the movie. I was very wrong! The kids still talk about staying up until midnight so I know they'll remember our 2020 fun family party for a while. :)

Christmas In Minnesota

Christmas in Minnesota

December 21-29

We packed up gifts, snow gear, and everything we needed for Christmas in MN and headed northeast for a week. We stayed at Angie and JP's house for the first four nights and then Lake Grandma and Grandpa's for the next four - even steven. We woke up to a pretty winter sunrise on Sunday morning in a quiet house; Polejewskis were down in Minneota when we arrived in FF. After an abrupt change in plans, Goulds arrived on Saturday as well, which is why we stayed at Polejewskis - no room at the Rustand Inn! 

We celebrated Christmas with the Rustands on Christmas Eve, starting the day with a family picture session at Pioneer Point. Jean made a big noon meal and then Santa Clause came around 1:00. We went to mass at 4:00, which meant that a handful of people went really early (like 3pm!) to save seats for us all. We ate dinner when we got back from church and then did program and gifts. It was a really full day - so fun, but super full. There really wasn't room for rest or just casual conversation! Good thing we had other days together during the week. :) One of my favorite things during the week was our evenings with Angie and JP. We stayed up late three nights in a row (soooo late!) visiting after the kids went to bed. It was such a sweet time together. 

We celebrated Christmas with the Legges on Christmas day. Mom did her usual clipboard of fun games, a few for the kids and a few for everyone together. She also made a feast and then we opened gifts later in the day. A few kids sang songs or recited bible verses, and the Christmas story was read. We stayed up late eating Christmas cookies, chatting, and playing games. So fun!
One day, we went sledding at Cleveland hill. The weather was great for an epic sledding adventure, and we all had a blast! The kids made memories playing with their cousins on both sides of the family. We hadn't seen Goulds since Autumn was maybe 8 months old, and she's 3 now, so it had been a while! We drank a lot of coffee and got in as much quality time as possible with our families. It was another wonderful Minnesota Christmas for the books!