Our Florida Holiday

Yes!  This is my feverish attempt to try to beat Tammy and post first about our holiday to Florida.  And I believe I'm successful, but prepare yourself - it gets a bit long. 

We are back, and  I'm finally unpacked, 10 loads of laundry done, our summer clothes put back into storage, and the nice glow of a tan already seems to be slipping away from all of us as we bundle to stay warm against the chilly 45 degree weather (I know MN, SD people - but the weather is all relative, right?!?)

We had such a great vacation in Florida.  It was just absolutely perfect.  I'll recount a few highlights of the trip:

We started Wednesday morning by waking the kids at 5:30 am.  We have not breathed a word of our trip to them beforehand, so they were a bit bewildered about the early wake up a bit intrigued by the 'surprise trip' we were going on.  Campbelle guessed as to our destination for about 3 hours before correctly guessing Disney World.  And then, much to our amazement she wasn't as ecstatic as we anticipated.  Instead, she looked a bit worrisome and asked quietly "Do we have enough money for this trip?"  (You see, at every commercial or inquiry about going to Disney World from her for the previous months, I would tell her that we would go someday, and that it was expensive and not just a place you could go to without planning and saving.)  When she was assured that we were indeed ok financially, she then got really excited about the thought of all the princesses and castles galore.

The second big surprise came later that night in Orlando.  You see, we hadn't told them about seeing their cousins Maddie and Will either - so the look on their faces when they came knocking on our hotel door was of pure shock.  In fact, both kids said nothing - but just slowly backed away from the door in utter amazement.  When it finally sunk in, there were tons of hugs, kisses and lots of giggling going around.

Thursday morning was the Magic Kingdom.  It was so much fun to see the look of wonder on their faces.  Campbelle told me she felt like she was in a dream.

We covered so much ground that day - Dumbo ride, car chase, Buzz Lightyear, Small World, Peter Pan, Mickey's Philharmonic, Toonville, Snow White, etc.... what a jammed packed day.  We ended it with a character dinner with Pooh and all his friends.  Christian was far less interested in talking to the characters -- he kept a very safe distance from them (unless physically pushed.)

By the end of that day, we had a few very exhausted kids.

Epcot was Day 2.  It started off a bit crabby for Christian - but with a rental stroller to take a break in, he got used the fast pace again.  He has no idea that these guys are standing behind him during his crabby moment.

And of course no trip to Epcot would be complete without taking in all the Norwegian culture.  Oh, my dear little Vikings!

The highlight of Day 2 for Campbelle (and I think Christian fancied it a bit too) was a Princess lunch.  Here she got to meet all the princesses.

And like I said, I think Christian fancied it a bit too.  Can you tell who his favorite princess was??

Day #3 was Animal Kindgom.  The highlight of that day was the African safari ride, Leif went on a crazy rollercoaster called Everest, and the Dinosaur Boneyard where you could dig for dinosaur bones.

 

 

We also talked to Mickey and wished him a Merry Christmas.

That marked the end of our Disney World portion - now it was on the beach and Sanibel Island where Dad, Marva and Gina joined us  for some relaxing and playing in the sun.  And we did a whole lot of just that....

Here's Leif working this quick camera action:

Christmas Eve service was held on the beach.  It was so very cool - a far different Christmas Eve service than I've ever experienced.

   

Thankfully Santa was able to track us down at the beach by Christmas morning.  There were loads of presents for all the kids to enjoy.

Santa gave the kids a Mickey and Minnie to remember their trip.

 

They are well loved and a nice cozy comfort at the end of long days.

We 'decorated' for Christmas the Island way.... we made Christmas tree on the beach, complete with toys under it.

Oh, and did I mention we played... ALOT!

Would you take a look at the vertical lift that Bill achieves on that jump!!

"Ha ha, got you that time Leif!!"

Sadly our vacation was coming to an end.  On Thursday everyone flew out of Fort Myers and my clan headed back to Orlando to catch a plane the following day.  We did take in SeaWorld and Downtown Disney before we said our goodbyes to sunny Florida.

Now aside from actually feeling the warmth of the sun on your skin, did you feel like you were right there with us on our vacation?  Or was it just plain too much details.  Well, I warned you didn't I?

We had such a great holiday, and best of all it was so much fun to be with family.  We've feel truly fortunate to have had such a great holiday season... from Thanksgiving with the Brenne's through Christmas in Florida.  We love our families so much and so glad to share such wonderful memories with all of them.   My hope is 2008 brings more of the same fantastic family times together... and hoping your 2008 is bright, full of laughter and love as well!

For the love of books

This is one of my very favorite sights! I love to see the kids flipping through books - makes me feel good, and makes me hopeful that this love of books will be with them throughout their lives. Campbelle seems to be on the cusp of reading. She is always trying to sound out words and 'push together' the sounds each one makes. Sometimes she is very good. Today, we were working on a word "Dirty" (as in a clean pig vs a dirty pig. Try as she might, the sounds D-I-R-T-Y, just kept sounding like 'messy' instead! (sometimes the pictures get in the way!!)

I might be losing my mind.....

Maybe it's the holidays, maybe it's all the activity going on in my life these days, or maybe it's the early signs of Alzheimer... but I truly think I may be losing my mind.

Let me explain.  On Wednesday night, I meet up with a bunch of my friends for a book club  discussion.  During the course of conversation, I mentioned that I think I had been experiencing some really strange memory loss / memory dysfunctional type of things the past few weeks.  But when I tried to explain all the crazy things that I've been unwilling doing, I could hardly recall a single episode to reinforce this bizarre behavior statement. 

So I've now added that memory lapse to my growing list of why I think I might be losing my mind.  Here are the others (which I've spent the past few days trying to recall):

1.  We ran out of paint while painting our loft, so I had to run to Home Depot to pick up another gallon.  I found the paint swatch - ordered my paint and then waited.  After I picked up the paint, I thought "wow, this really does look a lot darker on the test print... and funny the name of the paint seems unfamiliar".... seriously I did not even consider I had the wrong paint.  I paid for the gallon, still thinking - "wow this looks a lot darker", got in the van and drove home.  Still thinking "funny how it looks so much different."  I get about half way home when I add up the glaringly obvious nuisances and realize that I have ordered and paid for a paint color totally different from the other 3 gallons that I just put on my walls.  Don't get me wrong, it was still in the brown color family (I'm not that crazy)... but really!!?

2.  I took Campbelle to ballet class the Monday before Thanksgiving.  It's a really small dance space, so usually I say goodbye outside the studio and then she goes into class and Christian and I go to the coffee shop for 1 hour.  So I walk her to the door - tell her to have a nice dance class and am about to turn to go up the street when she says "Mom, I don't think we have class today."  "Oh, why?"  I ask.  "The door is locked, no one is there and the lights are off," she calmly replies.  Oooppss.  (thank God I didn't make it to the coffee shop - it was a really cold night).

3.  After shopping at Linens- and Things I began exiting the store only to find that the automatic sliding doors didn't open.  Instinctually, I grab my remote keys for the van and hold them up towards the door, feverishly pushing the 'unlock' button.  To no avail... those damn Linens-and--Things doors didn't open (that is until I stepped back and stood in the path of the sensor - just like magic).

4.  Campbelle had Church Christmas concert rehearsal after the last service of church every week for about 8 weeks. The Sunday after Thanksgiving, I had to teach at the 9:00 service, I then attended church at 10:45 service, and then made arrangements for Leif to bring Campbelle in afterwards for practice.   (She didn't come with me right away because 9:00 is way to early for this family; and Christian wasn't feeling well so they all didn't come in for 10:45 church).  (I also should add, that since we moved - our church is about 30-40 minutes away from home).  So Leif packed the kids up, dropped Campbelle off and her and I waited for practice to start.  We waited and waited and waited and wondered why there were no other kids coming to practice.  Then I realized, that I was part of the committee that decided NOT to have practice on that Sunday after Thanksgiving.  Oh yeah!  Now I recall that email I sent!!

5.  Monday at 11:00 is Christian's swimming lessons - it has been for weeks.  Last Monday I show up for lessons - thinking, " wow, I don't remember being in such a rush to get out of the house and to the pool on time on other Mondays.  We must have really had a lazy morning today" and also thought "huh, there are hardly very many people in the pool at this time" , and I thought throughout the whole class - "wow, these kids seem to be very little... Christian's a tall kid, but wow he makes these other kids look like babies"  and I thought "Funny, the teacher is doing some really basic things with these kids this week"  and also "crazy, no one from our previous weeks is in class with us, there must be some bug going around making kids sick"  We actually finish our lessons, shower and get ready, get in the van and leave.  Sometimes we meet Leif for lunch since the pool is right by MS, but today it was only 11:00am - and I thought "funny, we must have really eaten lunch early those other times."  It wasn't until I got home and got the reminder on the computer of Christian's swimming lessons at 11:00-11:30.  Huh, guess that 10:00-10:30 class is for babies and not toddlers after all!!

So now you see my concern!  And all this has happened in a few short weeks.  I used to pride myself on being very organized and having it all really together; and now all that just seems to be slipping away.  Yikes!!

Santa's Visit

We went to the mall a few weeks ago to visit Santa and take the letters that the kids had written. (We finally got the pictures back so I could post about it.) And even though Christian told us well in advance of his plans to cry when he sits on his lap, he successfully sat on his lap, talked to him about his letter and gave him a couple high-fives - all without a single tear. What a brave little man! Campbell thought he was a bit skinny though. I told her it must have been the South Beach Diet.

Now that we are into the countdown to Christmas ... here's hoping you all have a very merry holiday season.

Kids' Christmas Program at school

On Saturday night, the kids had their Christmas program for preschool, followed by the church Christmas program.

All the kids looked so nice in their Christmas outfits.  Campbelle was not shy about signing, and I did see Christian's lips moving a bit as well.

Their preschool sang We Wish you a Merry Christmas, Jingle Bells and Deep and Wide.

As you all know, Campbelle is tall.  She is crazy tall.  It becomes especially obvious in a line up with her peers.  During the song 'Deep and Wide' there was no problem of her bumping her hands into the other kids when she did the 'wide' part - they just sailed out over the top of everyone else's' heads.

After the preschool concert, the Sunday School kids performed a play.  Campbelle was in the choir, but told us that next year she's going to be an actor!!  We'll see.

And here are my little sweethearts before their big performance.   I truly think I could possibly kiss them to pieces!

Christmas #1

We have a special Christmas season this year... one that is a bit extended, with lots of celebrating with all our families. The first Christmas we had was last week with Liv and August.

The kids got a Marble Madness set from Onkel Tor. They both looked really excited don't they?

Christian got a cozy robe from Farmor and Farfar... now he can be just like Campbelle when he gets up in the morning... so grown-up

The kids got vests from Liv and August as well. Campbelle got a really fancy fur one. I do believe she's worn it every day since.
We are lucky to have celebrated with Leif's parents this year... even though it was a bit early - it was fun to share in the excitement of giving! Stay tuned for a few more Christmas'es to come!!