Merry Christmas Wennersten Style

tooth #6 lower right (incisor?) 12/24

We arrived in Grand Forks just ahead of some bad weather on 12/23. The initial predictions had the area of North Dakota we were visiting slated for 1-3 inches of snow over Christmas. A manageable amount. Who doesn't like a white Christmas? However, by the time we arrived, the predictions had changed and we were under a winter weather advisory and weatherpeople were predicting a lot of snow. A lot of snow for even North Dakota standards. This prediction didn't phase us too much because in the thirty years I've been alive, I've never missed a North Dakota Christmas due to weather (I have due to our wedding, John's family Christmas and my mom's work schedule). Just like we've never NOT made it TO North Dakota, we've never not made it home either. Until this year! A few pictures from 12/23.

Reading books with Great Grandma Nona

Amelia is a fan of measuring cups. Or anything that you can bang on a table.

I'm not sure why her hat is still on? Because it is cute with her fleece overalls? (Thanks Charlotte!)

This boy will stop just about everything to sit down with a book being read to him. He loves, LOVES to read books. Now it's Great Grandpa Budd's turn to read.

Amelia at Paradiso La Capana. This is hands down our favorite Mexican restaurant. I'm sure that it is totally authentic being its close proximity to the Mexican border (not). Whatever. It's good. We love it. And this is Amelia's first time eating at La Capana (chips).

This is an occasion for a picture! I've been eating at this restaurant since I was a baby. And here I am (although an unflattering shot) at La Capana with MY baby!

William eating his dinner - he loves LOVES the chips and sauce here! I'm so proud he eats salsa because he doesn't eat much else in the way of vegetables.

William and daddy. Luckily, John is a fan of Paradiso also :) We even sometimes get several burritos to go, freeze them and take them home in our cooler. They aren't nearly as good, but still pretty tasty.

It was just starting to snow lightly in the evening on the 23rd. Not enough to be a big deal, but enough we went out to shovel in the morning of the 24th. Especially with the weather predictions of more snow. Here are the pictures from the 24th.

We don't get much snow in St Louis (watch, this will be a record year now). We don't really even have a snow shovel. So, William was super excited about getting out an playing in the snow. This was a powdery snow, so there wasn't going to be any snowballs or snowmen, which was very sad. However, William was content to just help "shovel". More like take the snow off of the neatly shoveled drifts and put it back on the sidewalk.
John shoveling a past from the garage to the house.
Uncle Mike, William and Mama shovel the sidewalks around Grangerry and Grandpa Tom's house.
Me and Mike's version of American Gothic, subzero.
William's first snow angel. I have some video of this, but I'm going to have to upload it later when I can get to it.Amelia enjoyed watching everything from her cozy snowsuit. Apologies for the runny nose.

After all that hard work, we went inside for some hot chocolate and a birthday donut in honor of Grandpa Tom's birthday 12/20.

William was a fan of both the donuts and the hot chocolate. And the candles/singing.

Mike was just...Mike.

Amelia wearing her Christmas-y pajamas with her favorite tree ornament. A jingle bell. She would shake it, hold it to her ear, and say "Ehhh?". Every single time.

The kids in their daytime Christmas outfits+hats. I am a Christmas nerd. William hat a "tough cookie" shirt with a Christmas cookie on the front and Mia is wearing her red striped shirt, red pants and green Christmas socks. Very festive.

Although trying to get a picture to satisfy my nerdiness is nearly impossible.

Auntie Megan (and Uncle Mike) was a huge help to us over Christmas. She was up early-ish and always willing to hold a baby, wipe a nose (or behind), or help us out in any way. She was playing "Airplane" with William in which she would put him up on the bottom of her feet so he would "fly" up in the air. This game lasted a long time until William decided it was Megan's turn to be the airplane. Above, you'll note is Megan's airplane.

Over at the Wennersten's house, things were going on high getting ready for the Christmas celebration. Historically (with the exception of the 3 occasions), we celebrate Christmas eve in the evening with my mom's family and Christmas Day with my dad's family. Here is my mom buttering up the lefse she made with Aunt Kaye.

William waits for dinner playing a "polka dot game" (hand held Yahtzee) wearing his cute Christmas sweater.

Again with reading a book with Great Grandpa Budd.

My parents all dressed up for Christmas

Megan frosting Christmas cookies in the kitchen.

Mama getting Mia all dressed up in her finery.

Apparently with two small children that may or may not eat, I was too busy consuming meatballs to take any other pictures as was John. I've decided you can tell we have small children based on out etiquette and small talk. There isn't any. It is every wo/man for her/himself until one of the small children becomes A Problem which is when the discussion begins about whose turn it is to remove them from the table. Away from your plate of food. Public Apology: I truly apologize if you were sitting next to us at any dinner recently. There isn't any excuse except we're HUNGRY.

Anyway, here is Amelia eating Christmas dinner and sharing it with you!

Kaye couldn't come because of Scott's work schedule, so we had to call and wish her a Merry Christmas.

NOTE: Next year take a family picture while we are waiting for dinner. The kids are more patient, the outfits are clean and there is less whining.

All I wanted was a picture of the two kids by the fireplace with their stockings in their Christmas outfits. Easy right? HAHAHAHAHHA. Here are four of the best attempts:

Honestly, this is the best family picture of the bunch.

My parents/siblings

A funny picture of Willam and Megan

My family

My grandparents and their grandchildren (+ William)

Grandma Nona and Grandpa Budd with their two kids

Finally time for PRESENTS! John opened with a fish faced Amelia and I helped William. William opened one present, fell in love with his new truck and disappeared for a long time. So, no pictures of William opening presents.

And then. Then it was so late and was past time for our kids to go to bed. So, we packed up for the night while the rest of the family went to church for the candlelight service. A very special day, our girl's first Christmas.

Leaving, leaving

We're still behind. No surprise there. But, time isn't waiting for anyone and we're off to the Grandma and Grandpa land for a Christmas celebration we won't ever forget. And hopefully it won't be because we're sick or injured or otherwise unhappy.

Or because Santa did this.

9 Month Appointment

We had our 9 month well baby appointment today. It is on the early side, but we wanted to get it in before the true hustle and bustle of the season truly started in. All in all it was pretty uneventful with the high point being trying to keep Amelia on the scale long enough to get her weight correctly. Her stats are now:

Height: 29.25 inches, +1.75 inches in the last 3 months
Weight: 20 lbs 5 oz, +over two pounds in the last 3 months
Head Cir.: 46.5 cm, +2 cm in the last 3 months

The short version is Amelia continues to do well. She is at the top of the chart for height and in the 75% for weight and 90% for head size. She is a tall girl - we could have told you that without the chart though. She is constantly being mistaken for a baby much older than she really is.

We also picked up a seasonal flu booster to round out the appointment and will return for her 1 year appointment in spring. How is that possible?


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Our first appointment of the day was with the dentist for William. The American Academy of people who look at Kids' teeth for a living recommends now that parents bring their kids to the dentist for the first time between 6-12 months of age. Honest. I just read it today in our Parenting Toddlers book (not while at our dentist office). This was William's second visit to the dentist and I was hoping for a little progress in his performance. No dice. He enjoyed a ride in the dentist chair and happily wore the hotwheels sunglasses provided. He liked playing with the toothbrush and using the air blower to blow up plastic gloves. However, he flat out refused to open his mouth for anyone or anything. I was very tempted to....do something not nice to him, especially as his 9 am appointment time meant I spent most of the morning running around like a mad woman putting clothes on kids and trying to feed them in order to be on time. Amelia did her best to alternate between flirting with patients/hygienists and pulling cords out of the wall.

Santa, revisited

All I want for Christmas is a picture of the kids sitting with Santa. Laughing, crying, picking their noses, it doesn't matter. I'm not sure why it was so important this year, but it was. So, this is our third attempt for a picture with Santa. I was a little surprised because overall, this was by far our best experience. Including the wait in line. We went to the Bass Pro Shop. Not your typical Santa stop. The stuffed deer and fish nonwithstanding, it was wonderful. They had a lot of kids activities (coloring, remote control trucks, shooter things, crafts, letter writing station, play tents set up, etc) and most importantly, they allow your own photography. Nice. I wasn't sure how it was going to go based on our previous experience. When it was our turn, I brought the kids up and was ready to plop the kids down for their crying pictures when I was pleasantly surprised.

Santa put out his hand and wouldn't let me put the kids down. He wanted to talk to William first and warm him up. Here they are talking about what kind of cars William likes best. Because, you know Santa's workshop has both big cars and small cars.

A discussion about trains then occurred.

Santa then called William's attention to the miniature train rolling around nearby

And then he sat happily on Santa's lap. Ms Thing though was no so cooperative. She has happily cooperated through two other Santas without problem and I wasn't planning on it being any different this time. Turns out she was our crier this time. Go figure.

Christmas Day 4: A Christmas Program

First of all, we got a Christmas-ed up this morning to go to church! Amelia wore her snowflake sweater jumper and William wore his green striped sweater.

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I really felt like the Christmas program snuck up on me. Before Thanksgiving, the coordinator of the Christmas play and I decided it would be super cute to have the preschool set play and small role in the Christmas play put on by the youth in our church. The toddlers would join the rest of the cast in our Christmas play for the very last scene in the stable as animals while the congregation sang a hymn. All they had to do was be cute. We outfitted William with a costume from the "Official Christmas Play Box" and I committed to whip up something darling for Amelia to wear. I also assisted in badgering other parents to get their kiddos to participate so ours wouldn't be the only ones being a distraction. Of course I left it until the last minute to pull something together for Amelia. It's a good thing she is darn cute on her own. I'd like to present our very own Christmas mouse:

Amelia the Christmas Mouse (turns out she is probably of the white footed variety)

Using white fleece, a white headband and pink flannel, I created these awesome ears in about 20 minutes. I then cut about 14 inches of the rough edge of the fleece, added a safety pin and voila! A Christmas mouse was born!

Add in a white pair of tights, a white onesie and the costume is complete!

I'm biased, but she is SO cute!

She was really good about leaving the ears alone - I was surprised about that!

William (the donkey) was not so great about this. Several times he reached up and turned his hat sideways leaving one ear above his forehead and the other ear on the back of his head. We don't have as many pictures of William because he wasn't as tolerant about his costume. I dressed him halfway through the program and was out of it moments after the conclusion of the program.

The mouse and donkey get along fine!

So, during the last song, the preschool/toddler/babies were brought up front to join the manger scene. William nicely took a seat with the other kids. Amelia took one look at the manger and pulled herself up on it to get a better look at baby Jesus.

Amelia stole the show at this point. Most of the kids were laughing at her as were the adults in the audience. She was fascinated by the baby Jesus in the manger.

She picked him up, poked him in the eye, chewed on his fingers and rolled him around in his manger.

William on the left, Amelia center stage.

In our rush, we didn't bring our new flash, so the pictures are a little dark. William has relocated to the far right side of the stage and Amelia continues harassing the poor, little Jesus in his manger.

It was wonderful for the kids to have little parts in the program that didn't affect the production as a whole. Several people stopped me afterward to compliment our mouse's role in the show :) We do have video, but it is too long for Blogger and I am unable to edit on our laptop. Will have to wait until we are home again to edit and post.