Back to Rochester

Although it was a little rough going, the highways were finally opened up this morning and we made the trek back to Rochester. What might be the most astonishing fact is that we made the 7 hour trip with only one stop. A miracle with two kiddos. One of which prefers to nurse than drink for a cup and one whom is technically potty training (Potty training suffered enormous setbacks when on the way to GF, William was sitting on an automatic flush toilet when it flushed. Loudly.).

Anyhow, one of the big motivators to leave the fun of a Grand Forks Christmas is the promise of a Rochester Christmas. Our car is always so full of people, luggage, cold weather gear, and other necessary items it doesn't make a lot of sense to haul all the Rochester gifts with to ND. We just wait and open them when we get home. So, we rolled into Rochester around 4pm in time to start a third Christmas dinner acookin' (Christmas Calzones, yum!). While we were waiting for the dough to rise, we found that Santa had visited us in Rochester also!

Amelia finding a special kitty in her stocking (also note: candy cane pants!)

William: SOCKS! I LOVE SOCKS!

Daddy: SOCKS! I LOVE SOCKS!

Santa also brought Amelia some Puffs and a pink sippy cup (also note: candy cane pants!)

Then we all moved to the kitchen to create our calzones. William ate his entire calzone. A whole HUGE (1/4 sized) calzone. Amazing!

After dinner, Kaye and Scott joined us to open gifts. They weren't excited about having their picture taken because they had been snowmobiling most of the afternoon/evening and were concerned about their appearance.

Mike loves CDs.

Mike also loves toilet paper.

William checking out my new kitchen tongs. (notice my music playing Santa socks. Next year I will entertain you with the twelve days of my Christmas sock collection)

Amelia crashed right after dinner. It had been a long day. I'm never sure what to do in these situations. My family was together to celebrate Christmas, a special occasion. Clearly, Amelia needed to go to bed. I was torn. Keep her up? Put her to bed? To bed she went and then the question: Open her gifts while everyone is together? Or open them later when she is awake? Gah. There is no winning in this situation. We opted for later, right or wrong.