Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas!

The first of our multiple Christmas' began the weekend before Christmas, as we ventured to Pella to Aunt Dani and Uncle Pat's house to celebrate with the Bortscheller clan. Grandma and Grandpa B were there along with "The Godparents" (Uncle Jeff and Aunt Maureen), Aunt Anita and Uncle Raleigh and all 10 of Olivia's big cousins. We missed Uncle Ken, Aunt Amanda and Alexis tremendously, but were lucky enough to see them at Thanksgiving. The day was great and the gigantic snowflakes falling from the sky made the day perfect. However, the blizzard like winds when we were packing the car up to leave and driving home was not so perfect.

Our annual Christmas Eve celebration with my dad's side of the family was postponed due to extreme cold weather and my dad having been in the hospital for almost a week and still recuperating. So, I made some of my now famous cheese soup and some beer bread and my parents came over for dinner and a little card playing. While playing cards , I whispered in Olivia's ear that Santa was going to come while she was asleep and bring her lots of great presents. Pricelessly (is that a word), Olivia pulled back from me, gave me a HUGE smile and nodded her head.

Christmas morning was wonderful. Santa left his gifts for Olivia, which she immediately crawled towards and started playing with. Actually, she plucked the sheep from The Little People barn and promptly put him in her mouth, but she had a big smile on her face while doing so. We spent the next 45 minutes unwrapping gifts (Olivia unwrapped gifts) and she only needed reminded a couple of times to stop eating the paper. After Olivia's morning nap we went to Grandma and Grandpa Mackin's house for our Christmas morning, where Olivia continued to unwrap a boat load of gifts for the next hour and a half. She finally grew tired of unwrapping the presents and crawled around the living room as we unwrapped our gifts. Later that day we had a small Christmas with Aunt Patty, Uncle Bruce and Benny. Olivia received her first ever Vikings jersey (Adrian Peterson #28) from my cousin Chad (he wasn't able to make it), which she will be sporting for the big play off game. Finally, we all ventured over to Great Grandma Betty's and Great Grandpa Russ' house. It was a L O N G day, but Olivia was a trooper, especially for waking up the next morning with a new tooth!