Christmas at Grandmas

Saturday, December 26th

We took off from Ames for Okoboji Saturday morning. The roads were good, so we made it in good time. We arrived just in time for Grandma's delicious lunch of sloppy joes, cheese soup, and egg salad sandwiches. After lunch my mom and I went shopping at a few of the stores in town while others played Risk (Dad won again!). I love the shops in Okbooji, especially at Christmas time. For dinner Grandma had cheesy potatoes, ham, and green beans. We never go hungry at Grandma's!

Sunday, December 27th
We woke up to rolls and A LOT of coffee. With so many people at Grandma's it is always a trick to get in for a shower. Everyone managed to get a shower before Christmas lunch. This year we celebrated earlier in the day, so had a Christmas lunch. We had Grandma's traditional roast, potatoes, corn, veggies, bona duce cheese, rolls, 7 layer salad, hot tamale salad, herring, olives, and root beer. After lunch we passed the candy tray as always with all of Grandma's yummy treats. Cleanup when fast and we jumped right into the next phase of the day. We cannot start presents until every combination of pictures are taken. We go much faster now that we are older! Wendy read the Bible passage this year and did a great job. The whole group then sang "Hark the Herald"... this rendition will not be on iTunes top 10. ;)  Grandma got me the nativity set and star backdrop for my nativity scene. My mom got me the three wisemen, so it is extra special having the set given to me in different groups from my favorite people. It will be fun to add on to it next year with more of the pieces.

We spent the rest of the day relaxing and playing games. We were going to leave Monday morning, but a big snow storm was moving up from the South so we all left that night. Justus and I left around 8:00 after getting Grandma's iPad setup. We made it back to Norwalk around midnight. When we woke up Monday there was quite a bit of snow and the wind was bad. So, I am happy we did leave early. It was another memorable year with a lot of great memories! I am so blessed to have a great family and rich traditions.

The "kids" table

Grandma's main tree

Tensen selfie

Grandpa Craig & Grandma Sharol

The Bass Family 2015

Grandparents and Grandkids

Grandma's Swedish Tree

My Nativity Scene setup at home- love it is from Grandma and Mom

Christmas Day

I LOVE Christmas mornings at my parents' house. It use to be Wendy woke everyone up early to open presents, but this year I had to wake everyone up! Sam and Wendy have turned into such sleepyheads in college. I love coming upstairs and seeing how my mom...I mean Santa... left the fireplace setup. 

Santa came...love this scene. 

Opening our stockings. Best part was when Wendy found a bracelet that was not from this year. Not sure how many Christmas ago she was suppose to get that! haha

Dad forgot to wrap our presents, so waited behind the wall to bring them out. Silly Dad! 

Justus looking handsome in his new coat. 

Dad got a map to mark all the National Parks he has been to.

Pretty Christmas Day, so had to take a selfie. 

After our morning of fun, we headed to Joan's for lunch and her annual gift game. The lunch was delicious and fun seeing everyone. It was nice to spend so much time with Grandpa Jack, he is as feisty as ever. I love Joan's gift game. She wraps a gift many times and it gets passed around the room. Each person can only unwrap one layer at a time then it is passed on. If you take off the final layer it is yours! I scored the Peppermint Bark this year, which Justus was pretty pumped about.

Peppermint bark for the win! 

Grandpa Jack, Grandkids, and Gunner

Cousins + Mike cerca HS graduation

Grandpa Jack :)

After a great day with my side of the family, we headed to Kim's for dinner. We had a delicious Mexican casserole and my favorite- mulled wine. The theme of gifts this year were socks- everyone got socks! We stayed at Kim's so we could take off for Okoboji the next morning. I was able to squeeze in a Yoga session before our Starbucks stop and 3+hour car ride.

Starbucks struggling with the spelling of our names. At least they tasted yummy.

Christmas Eve 2015

What a busy, wonderful time of year. Each year it amazes me how much preparation and anticipation goes into the holidays and then it is over so fast. Each day was packed with so many memories, I will split up the posts. 

Christmas Eve:
Justus had to work a half day today, so I went to TWO yoga classes at PowerLife Yoga and the mall in between. I enjoyed getting a good workout in before all the food to come. After my first barre class we saw it had snowed- we were all very excited. I had really wanted a white Christmas!

Justus and I later headed to Boone so we could make it in time for frosting cookies. This year's frosting session got a little R rated. The bell didn't look like a bell and Santa had his naughty-bits showing. Oh my! We got all the ridiculousness out of our system (for the most part) before church. Grandma came out for our picture tradition in front of the tree. We all headed to a beautiful Christmas Eve service and then back to our house for goodies and catching-up. It was great to see my family, especially Sam since he is now in Illinois. I love Christmas Eve and the traditions my mom has maintained over the years.

Yearly tradition of cookie decorating. 

The naughty cookies...

Siblings <3

Justus got in on decorating a cookie

Grandma and Grandkids

The Bass Family

Justus and I

Mom, the stockings are out of order! Don't mess the order up after 25 years!

Our beautiful church on Christmas Eve

First Christmas in our New House

Saturday, December 19, 2015

Justus and I celebrated Christmas with just the two of us a little early due to the busy time ahead. Thankfully santa was understanding and arrived early for us ;) Celebrating Christmas together is always special, but it was extra special since it was our first Christmas in our house. It brought back memories to 2012 when we celebrated Christmas together at our apartment... Justus gave me an ugly sweater and an engagement ring!

Justus completely surprised me with a beautiful Coach purse. I never showed him styles I liked, so am very impressed with his taste. He did good! I managed to match this gift by giving Justus a bunch of dog items *sarcasm*. Ok, I got Orly a dog bed and food storage container but put Justus's name on it. I did get Justus a few sweaters from Eddie Bauer (fiasco due to FedEx issues) and a bottle breacher beer opener. We had seen the bottle breacher on Shark Tank and thought it was pretty neat. We have a new love for Caribou Coffee, so loaded Justus up with coffee grounds and k-cups. Once again, Justus out did me! Gifts are good, but making new memories and spending time together was great. We finally got our watching of Elf fit into the day as well!

Festivities can begin now that I have coffee! 

Santa came!

My pretty Coach purse and Justus's bottle breacher

First Snow

Last weekend (late November) we had our first snow of the year and while in our new house. The past few years we had our great landlord, Steve, take care of all the shoveling. We missed Steve the morning we had to shovel... and when I say "we", I really mean Justus. I did order some snow boots and got a shovel from my dad, so now I can be of some assistance for our next snowfall.

First snow

Less green and more white out there today! 

Justus working hard! I stayed warm with coffee during this. 

Thanksgiving

We should be thankful all times of the year, but Thanksgiving is a great time to reflect on how thankful I really am. I am so blessed with a wonderful husband, close-knit family, great home, job I am passionate about, a church I love, and all the wonderful experiences I have had in my 25 years thus far. God has blessed me with a wonderful life and for that I am thankful. 

This Thanksgiving we traveled to Omaha to Justus's aunts house Wednesday night. We woke up to the smell of yummy food and good coffee! We enjoyed the day with family and amazing food. Sonya made a fantastic Thanksgiving lunch. We drove through a winter storm (a lot of ice) to Boone Thursday after lunch. We stopped for gas in Adel and someone asked, "Wow, where have you been?!" Our car was covered in ice! 

At my Aunt Sue's we enjoyed snacking, playing Outburst (circa 1980s), and seeing family. Justus had to head back since he had to work Friday morning. I stayed the night and enjoyed seeing Sam and Wendy. Sam was back from grad school at Southern Illinois...a 9 hour drive! We took the annual photo in front of the Christmas tree. I love the traditions my mom has. Her house is so welcoming and festive at Christmas time. 

Friday morning my mom, grandma, and I went shopping in Ames. It was not too busy, which was nice. That night my parents took me to Lowe's to meet Justus so we could get a real Christmas tree. Checkout my other blog post on the decorating! 

Came up the weekend before to see Grandpa. He is his typical, chatty and feisty self! 

Our Thanksgiving selfie to say hi to my parents

Me: "Wait, lets take a selfie with the deer!" Justus: "Fine....".
It is not rudolf fyi ;)

Cousin pic! 

That moment you get to Thanksgiving and you are wearing the same sweater as your mom!

Outburst circa 1980 made it tough for our us youngsters, but was a lot of fun! 

Cousins + Julia

The guys lookin' tough

Thanksgiving day lounging 

The annual sibling pic in front of the tree

Glad I could see my siblings :)

My mom's retro toy picture

Tis' the Season

I LOVE the Christmas season! I believe my mom inherited this from her mom and then I inherited from my mom and grandma. The Christmas season reminds me how thankful and blessed I am. I love the festivity, time with family, and the decorations. To sum it up, it puts me in a great mood!

This year I did a little decorating before Thanksgiving and then after Thanksgiving Justus and I put the tree up. My parents drove me back down to Norwalk after Black Friday Shopping. We met Justus at Lowe's so we could buy our very first REAL tree for our first Christmas in our house. My parents always have a real tree, so this was special to finally have a real tree. Justus and I had a fun time decorating the tree. Justus was such a helper, but wow does he despise glitter! Checkout the pics below of our decor and tree decorating.

Bowl from my Great Grandma with some pinecones, greenery, and Luminara (fake) candle

Mini ornaments I got 70% off last year at Target! 

Love the little lights with this :)

Random decor...

Ski poles from Boxwoods- love that store! 

My very special stockings from Grandma Sharol are hung. 

Cozy

Outside needed a little sparkle too! 

"Don't worry guys, I got the poinsettia!"
Dad and Justus taking care of the tree while I handle the $1 poinsettia. Mom had to document this I guess. 

Brr...got the garland up Saturday morning.

"If you give Justus a beer, he will help you decorate." He was a great sport, until the glitter appeared. 

Our first tree in our new home- makes me so happy! 

Selfie time! 

I love coming home to this. Notice the lit up Christmas pic- fun gift from my aunt last year.