Christmas '13

I never do a good job of capturing the magic of Christmas with my photos, but we had a perfectly wonderful holiday this year. 

On Christmas Eve we attended mass with the Cavanaghs. The service was quite, but the kids did a great job. They enjoyed the theatrical production of the Christmas story and the music. After church we opened presents, which of course was so much fun. Andrew danced around the room "assisting" each person with opening his/her gift. Our traditional meal of crab legs and butter followed, and the night concluded with a sleepy ride home. 

 The kids surprised us with a reasonable wake-up call of 7am, and were so excited to race down the stairs to check if Santa had come. They emptied their stockings first, then took turns opening gifts. Favorites included new legos, melty beads, and lots of art supplies. 

After a lazy morning, we loaded up the car and headed to Sioux City where we enjoyed time with family, great food, and more presents. 

Each holiday season is more incredible than the last when look at through the eyes of our two best gifts. Here's to wonderful end of an amazing year!

Snow Much Fun

Last night we got quite a bit of snow, so this morning we enjoyed playing with our neighbors out in the winter wonderland.

This Boy

At 3 years old, Andrew is hilarious and full of life. A few things to capture his personality....

Somewhere he picked up the expression "Aw fiddlesticks!" 

Here he is eating my sushi. With chopsticks. In his pajamas. 

And finally, Andrew's interpretation of the quiet, cooperative game Chicky Boom (which is now known in our family as Chicky Launch). 

Tree Decorating

Last night we picked out the Christmas tree and tonight it was time to decorate. 

Finding their stockings and picking their holders. 

 The kids had so much fun getting out each ornament. We have a tradition of getting a special new one each year, and they love looking at all of their "special ones". 

 The finished product, and two sweet helpers. 

After the tree was decorated, we ate popcorn and watch the Frosty movie that Max our elf brought us this morning. What a wonderful way to kick off the most magical time of the year!

The Theater

Kate has been very into writing lately. Here she is performing a one-woman show that she wrote. 

Thanksgiving

 As with any big event around here, the anticipation for Thanksgiving built in the weeks before. We were lucky enough to spend time with both sides of the family.

Kate took the planning very seriously. She brought this to do list home from school one day...

And during rest time on the weekends she worked very hard at writing 11 different "mini-books". Each one was about a Thanksgiving related topic and each person who stayed at our house got to take one home, along with a homemade turkey. She is quite the hostess!

 The day before Thanksgiving we made some treats. 

Here was the end result for 3/4 of the family...

 ...and Andrew's interpretation of the project.

 On Thanksgiving we drove to Davenport where we spent the day eating, watching football, and hanging out with the Cavanaghs. 

Andrew & Kate helping with the annual heavenly hash.

 Which led to lots of taste testing...

 On Saturday, all of the Vogels came to our house for a Thanksgiving Round #2. 

After dinner Kate led us in a craft of making hand turkeys. She had it all planned out, even down to the instructions of passing our crayons to the right so we could all share, and using stickers to add "the setting" for the turkey. 

That evening we went to a movie at the theater--Andrew's first--which we all loved. 

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving...so much to be thankful for, this time of year & always.