New Year's Eve!

We spent our New Year's Eve eating fun food and playing games! (None of us made it til midnight!)

 

Snow!

We got a whole bunch of snow last night and today! Conner worked on his snow blowing skills this afternoon!

Staying Up...

The boys tried to stay up to watch the Hawkeye basketball game tonight. Ben gave it up early and went to bed, but Conner sat on the couch just like this, insisting that he wasn't tired! These guys just can't do late nights!

 

First Ride...

Today was the day I have been dreading... the boys got to try their skateboards! They did pretty good for their first time! I took a skateboard to the ankle, which landed me inside with an ice pack, but other than that, there were no injuries!!!

Road Trip...

We drove to Conrad today so we could spend a few hours with Nick's parents. Again, not our typical Christmas celebration, but we were happy that we could see them, even for a short time! The boys loved getting more presents, of course!

 

Merry Christmas!

Christmas morning is here! Santa came and we were all pretty excited to have some caramel rolls for breakfast and break open some of these presents! We spent most of the morning opening gifts! Ben and Conner were pretty thrilled with everything! The grand finale for them was when they opened the biggest boxes under the tree and received skateboards! Nick spent the day (and I do mean the whole day... lunch turned into dinner!) smoking a ham, which turned out incredible! We had a great Christmas with just the four of us this year. It was definitely a different holiday season since we didn't get to do many of the things that we would normally do, but we made the best of it! We had zooms with family today and that was really fun to see everyone even if it was just on the computer. Merry Christmas to everyone!!!

 

Christmas Eve!

We are spending Christmas at home this year because of Covid, so we have spent a great deal of time asking the boys what would make our Christmas Eve fun! One of the things that they wanted to do is have a poker tournament. We started early in the afternoon with poker and we played several other board games to make it an official game night! We enjoyed chicken lasagna for dinner and resumed our game playing with some champagne and sparkling cider. I have been doing a wine advent calendar with my sister, so Nick joined me for that picture tonight and Nick had his Christmas Eve shot that we sent to Gramps since we weren't able to do it in person this year. 

 

Appointment...

Today I had the pleasure of taking Ben to his appointment in Iowa City. I rarely get to go with him anymore because I am still at work at 3:30 in the afternoon, so Nick has been taking him. Our winter break started today so I got to take him today. This kid is just straight up amazing by the way... he is cool, calm, and collected while he gets his blood drawn and while he receives his medication injection! I am so proud of him! Also, while we were gone, Conner had to stay home alone, and he did an awesome job of managing his time at home! Ben said I did an excellent job of driving and parking in the ramp. AND his platelet count today is 99k, which is higher than last week, so we were pretty happy!

 

Updated...

This is our updated tree and present display! Christmas is almost here!

 

Yearbook Photos...

Our school district did not have Fall pictures taken this year, so the boys' school had asked if we would send a photo for the yearbook. So, after many takes, these are the two winning pictures that we will submit for the boys' yearbook photos!

 

Light Tradition...

One tradition that we can keep during this crazy Christmas season is going over to the Blue Creek Christmas light show by Walker. We got our hot cocoa and enjoyed the show!