home for Christmas–part 1

what a wonderful christmas we have had at “home” (my old home in de pere wisconsin). I arrived with the kids on monday afternoon.

on tuesday, my friend bekka and her daughter calista drove up from milwaukee area to visit. it was great to see her and finally meet calista who is now over a year old!

this is our attempt at a picture with all 4 kids. charlie has ellie and claire pinned down and calista is running away.

then wednesday morning, my cousins laura and joy came over with joy’s boys, jude & max.

suzanne and laura were chatting while keeping max safe from jude & charlie.

we spent our morning catching up and managing the kiddos. here is joy sitting with her two boys and laura with eleanore.

this is ellie trying to scale the gate going upstairs. both claire and eleanore liked trying to climb up the gate. you can’t really see it in the picture, but she has her feet on the little bit of step that is available. definitely not safe.

wednesday night bill arrived from rochester, tommy flew in from salt lake city and dan & meg drove up from chicago. it was so great to be all together again! 

the kids were SO excited to see their daddy!!!

here are the girls pushing each other on this lightening mcqueen. claire is a better pusher and eleanore a better passenger.

thursday morning we woke up all together for the first time since this summer. my dad also had a big gift to give charlie, eleanore and claire – a kitchen set that he built!

my dad ready to reveal the kitchen.

charlie loved it and instantly checked everything out.

thank you g.pops!

bill and eleanore.

auntie suz gave eleanore (her goddaughter) an ornament. ellie loves it as you can tell.

suz & ellie.

uncle tom gave the girls smart wool socks (claire on the left).

uncle tom got charlie a “shred hat” so he can rip it up on the ski hill. I love charlie’s smile – he loves his uncle tom.

eleanore grabbed on tight to give meg a slobbery kiss.

after this many days of opening gifts, charlie is a bit obsessed about getting gifts. It has been wonderful to watch our kids be showered with gifts, but I am looking forward to getting back into our routine. anyway, while in green bay my mom & dad had a few more gifts for charlie, eleanore and claire.

giving nana a thank you hug.

we spent most of our time when the kids were awake downstairs letting them go crazy. here is ellie showing off her pushing skills.

these girls are so smiley and sweet!

on to part 2…