Christmas Vacation

 Sunday morning I was getting the hang of my new waffle maker.

Clara was getting the hang of her new underwater camera.

Behold! Our Christmas Vacation Bucket List:

Sunday:

It had already started snowing, but we knew it was forecast to get colder throughout the week, so we planned our outside snow stuff for early in the week. We knocked out most of that with sledding, four-wheeler sled rides and a snowball fight. Brynn was busy inside rearranging her room which turned out fantastic. She got all her furniture moved around all by herself. 💪

For dinner we had homemade pizza while we watched The Grinch (animated version) downstairs.

We had planned Dad and Clara's slumber party for a different night, but they moved it up to Sunday night instead.

Meanwhile, Brynn used her new curling wand set on herself and me. :-) Mine got a little floofy. Ha.

Monday:

We did our Oreo house decorating contest. Dad and Clara teamed up again.

Thanks to all who voted! The winner was....Team Dad + Clara (#3). They won a free cookie coupon to Jen's Bakery.

Mom's House

Brynn's House

The Winner: Dad + Clara's House

Then in the evening we took in 'Sing 2' in the Dreamlounger at the movie theater. It was really good!

Tuesday:

Each of the girls had a friend over.

Clara was putting together a new LEGO set she got for Christmas, waiting for Adria to arrive.

Brynn and Annabelle

Our neighbors said the girls could play on the giant snow hill in their backyard, so all four girls were out on it even though it was sub-zero temps. They didn't last too long, but at least they had fun for the little while that they were out there.

Wednesday:

LEGOs and pancakes to start the day...

Back out on the snow hill at -5 degrees. Clara and I lasted a lot longer than I thought we would. Ha. She looks so tall in this picture.

We had planned an afternoon of reading and hot cocoa bombs which sounded like a great idea after coming in from the cold.

Turned out I was the only one who actually read. Clara rested and Brynn retreated downstairs; both left their half-drunk mugs in the sink. (The hot cocoa bombs are really rich!)

Also planned for Wednesday was Dad/Clara skating at Skate City and Brynn and I originally planned to go bowling, but opted for a movie at home instead.

Thursday:

Thursday AM was set to be morning movie and snuggle-fest. Dad and Clara were the only two who participated in that one by re-watching The Grinch.

We didn't do too much else for Thursday besides clean up the house a bit, Clara and I went back out to "Snow Mountain" and Brynn had another friend over.

On our bucket list for Thursday was to eat out at Mainline in Downer for dinner. So, we brought Brynn's friend, Chloe, with us and had a nice meal there.

Whelp, the only two things we didn't end up crossing off our bucket list was ice skating and family game night. We will be celebrating Christmas with Dana's side this weekend, so I'm sure we'll get some games in then. It was amazing have two straight weeks off of work and I feel like it was really restful and rejuvenating and just great to spend time with the family, but still get things done while the girls were in school before Christmas break.

Happy New Year!

Here's a video montage of our bucket list: