Our First Christmas

I've already posted about our Christmas celebration with Aunt Elinor, so I'll fast forward through the week and start at the little Christmas gift opening that Tony and I had alone at our home. We could not find a time to open presents alone together that wasn't either super early in the morning or very late at night. We chose very late at night. December 24th at 12:30am was our gift opening!

I found this desktop calendar for Tony back in September. It fits him perfectly!

I really wanted a nice fluffy bathrobe! My wonderful husband found me one!

I got Tony a Kinect for his Xbox 360. We're very excited to try it out!

Being that I have such a great husband, he gave me the Nook Color. I have been looking at them since they first came out! I've been having a lot of fun playing around with it! 

Luna didn't like that we put presents under the tree. Here she is glaring at me!

Now I'll bring you to Christmas Eve morning. We arrived out to Willow Hill (Tony's parent's house) a little after 8am. We were greeted with the whole Knutson clan: Alan, Cher, Brian, Kate, Maya, Jon, Mindy, Natalie, Harvey, Oliver and Sprout. What a breakfast feast we had! After we chowed down, we headed to the basement to open presents. My favorite part was watching Natalie open her presents. After each one she would yell "That's just what I wanted!!!" So much fun! I do not have any pictures of the Knutson event unfortunately. I left my camera at home! We stuck around for some play time and visiting. I did a lot of hide and go seek with Natalie and Harvey! We did some snuggling with Maya on her first Christmas, and we enjoyed the excellent Christmas cookies that Alan made this year.

Around 2pm we headed over to Grandma Jayne and Grandpa Bob's house for some slush and gift opening. We didn't have much time unfortunately, so we're heading back tomorrow morning to visit some more. Laur and Jill were there as well, so we finally gave them the Vikings birdhouse we bought so long ago!

Tony headed to work after that quick stop, and I headed to church for the night. I sang at Bethel's 4:30 service and attended St. John's at 6pm and 10:30. The messages were absolutely wonderful as well as the music. It's so fun to hear my mom sing in the choir! I enjoyed a quiet dinner with my parents after the 6:00 service. It was just Mom, Dad and me.

Now we're to Christmas morning. Tony and I headed to my parents by 8am. We had some gift opening and sticky buns.

Mom has really wanted a Nook, so Will, Tony and I bought her one! It's a combo-birthday/Christmas gift.



Dad is modeling his new shirt from Tony and I. Yes, he's a stud!

Will had a lot of gifts this year! We couldn't see him after I passed them all out!

Tony and I got a lot of joint gifts. These are some of them. Mini marshmallow guns! We're very excited to try them out! Thanks Mom and Dad!

At the end of our little Fredricksen Christmas, Amanda, Will's girlfriend, joined us. She opened her presents from Tony and I, and then we all headed to Mark and Christa's for Smidt Family Christmas 2011! I'll just do a photo montage so you get the idea of what it's like there.....

There's A LOT of food!

and cousin bonding (Michelle and Tyler)

and playing Tyler's iPad (Connor, Nathan, Tyler and Becky aka my mom)

Having fun with Grandpa's stocking stuffers!

The traditional cousin shot. However, the couch was in an awful position this year! Not the best pics we've taken....

Jake, Kaylee and I made ugly/fantastic sweaters for Christmas this year. 

Some people tried out Kaylee's new game....

and some had puppet shows.....

 It was a fun filled Christmas, that's for sure! Tony had to head into work, so I have the house to myself with Luna. Merry Christmas everyone! God's blessings

Overboard?

I posted a while back about my trip out to Rosebud for Thanksgiving. What I didn't mention about the trip was a phone call I received from my husband. He was asking how much money he could spend on a TV on Black Friday. I said that it was his money and as long as it was in the budget, get what you like. Well, he did! It finally arrived this morning; it was on back order.

Tony said he sat down on the couch this afternoon while looking at the TV and thought to himself, "did I go a little overboard?" Well, he might have, but it is quite fun!

We had to reorganize our basement area. The entertainment center that Jon and Mindy gave us needed to be moved, since the TV did not fit in it! It will now serve as a china hutch of sorts.....

I made it!

Most of my friends and family know that I have struggled with my change in employer. I love what I do, and I love the kids, but there is a lot of added mental AND physical stress that come with my job. I just want you all to know that....

I MADE IT! It is now Christmas break, and I'm at home in my sweats while my husband is starting a fire for me!

This is my " I made it" picture that a student of mine took today. We had a winter solstice party at Oxbow Park. I dragged my four elementary students all over the trails.....We may have had several phone calls asking if we were going to make it back in time for the bus departure......But the point is, we made it, and so did I. I survived the school year up until now, so nothing can stop me now! (ps. early outs are the absolute best thing school districts ever invented!)

Our mature cat.

Luna always comes and bugs us at the dinner table without fail. She likes to get her 2 front paws up on our legs to see what we're eating. However, tonight she just sat, all curled up on the couch. This is a first in the life of Luna. She got mad at me for using the flash, as you can see. Our little kitty is growing up so fast! I did some Christmas shopping for her yesterday. She is very excited to see her grandparent's faces when they open their presents from her! (as my dad would say, I'm becoming a true "cat" person.....)

Oh Canada!

Aunt Elinor has decided to travel to Canada with her friend Nancy for Christmas. We usually spend Christmas Eve at her house, so our plans changed! We had Christmas Eve today! Here are some photo highlights!

Aunt Elinor always makes us some FANTASTIC hand carved objects.

Dad got an adorable lumberjack, ax and all!

Mom got a little Norwegian saint and horse.

Tony got a little maestro man.

I got the same as Mom!

Will has a fisherman.

This is the premiere picture for Amanda on our blog. She is Will's girlfriend! She got golf ball ornaments. Elinor takes the shell off and carves the insides. They're very neat!

These are all the new carvings. Oh, I forgot that Will and I got wizard magnets as well!

Elinor is quite the cribbage board collector. Some time I'll go over and take photos to share! Her entire sun room is FILLED with them. This year, Tony and I bought her a new one. It says Minnesota and has cardinals on them.

Dad found her a snowshoe cribbage board! 

After dinner and opening presents, we all played dominoes. Well, everyone but Dad....

It seemed strange to leave and remember that we all have to work in the morning. I was really expecting tomorrow morning to be Christmas. Have fun in Canada Elinor and thanks for a wonderful evening!

Bethel Christmas Concert

Last Wednesday evening our church had a rather large Christmas Concert. Below is the link if you want to watch the concert.

If you want to just see the part that Tony and I performed in, it's the third video starting at 14 minutes. I'm the one in blue directing, and Tony is up there in the top right singing away.

http://bethellutheran.com/christmasconcert.html

Drinking hole.

Every day when I refresh Luna's water dish, she races into the bathroom to beat me to the faucet. She then tries to drink from it. Tonight I allowed her to. After I turned off the faucet she jumped in the shower and looked at me longingly; I did not give in to her and turn the shower on! She's spoiled enough as it is!

Our Little Gift

In one of my last posts, I said that Luna was upset with me for moving the tree skirt. Well, she has discovered that it's still a great napping location even though it's now under the tree.

Happy Birthday Amy!

Last Friday was my Aunt Amy's birthday. Some of our family got together and helped her celebrate today at lunch. My mom had us over for soup! It was delicious.

Singing Happy Birthday to Amy. I tried to get a quick shot of everyone in attendance (except for me). I randomly decided to videotape my Grandma's 75th birthday song, and it happened to be her last birthday. I cherish that video now, and I have decided to try to videotape everyone's birthday song just to have on file! 

Here's her birthday cake made by my mom.

Amy and her loving children!

I put these in the wrong order...lighting the candles.

1 second before I hit the button to capture this picture, Connor was making the same exact face I am. He changed his mind last minute, making me look silly! 

Deck the Halls

This past week was quite an interesting one for me. Tony worked evenings Monday through Wednesday. This means that I leave for work before he wakes up, he leaves for work before I get home, and I'm in bed (hopefully sleeping) when he gets home. I did not actually see him until Thursday when we met at Beetles for some popcorn before I met a friend for dinner.

With that said, we have had our Christmas tree up but not decorated for almost 2 weeks! Last night, we were finally able to do some decorating.

This is Luna's tree. She loves to sit by it and look inside it. 

When Tony brought his ornaments home, I spread all of them out by year. Laur made them all and put the year on each and every one of them. They are wonderful!

Until we decorated our tree, we kept the tree skirt off so we wouldn't have to shake it off. It's been sitting on a chair. Luna has decided it's her favorite place to take a nap. She stays there for hours at a time. She's a little upset with me for moving it under the tree...

Luna's not too sure about that Santa guy.

Our tree is so tall, Tony needed a ladder to put ornaments up high.

I was in charge of making sure there weren't any large gaps without ornaments.

Here's the finished product. 

 Luna loves it when Tony waters her tree. She sits there and waits for the water to work itself through the dirt and come out the bottom into the tray.

Then she has a little pine flavored drink.