The Christmas Letdown

I don't mean "letdown" as in disappointing or unexciting. I mean letdown as in, time to recuperate, relax, regroup. We spent all month getting geared up for Christmas. It was especially fun this year with Ella so into it and having a full understanding of the holiday (we even began to tell her The Christmas Story and that Christmas was celebrating Jesus' birthday--not just about presents). However, after 5 or 6 days straight of celebrating, family get togethers, and present opening. We were exhausted! We have spent the last five days recuperating and not even leaving the house much. :-)


Celebrating with the Comandes

We started the festivities by flying to Racine Dec. 20th. We flew not wanting to risk a minimium 6 1/2 hour drive in bad weather. We enjoyed visiting with Andrew's parents and brother and sister-in-law as well as the Comandes and a few of the Isaacsons. About halfway through gift opening, Lily was so overwhelmed she had to leave the room and relax a bit. This was somewhat of a theme throughout the rest of our Christmas festivities. She still had two Santa gifts to open on the 26th because she just couldn't do it on the morning of the 25th. We really enjoyed our visit to Wisconsin. I especially enjoyed my annual trip to the salon for pedicures with my sister-in-law Jenelle and our cousin-in-law Gina. We were trying to figure out how long we've been doing it, it's either 3 or 4 years now. But we always have a good time! Especially with coffee and chocolate in the mix.


Eating and getting ready to open gifts with some of the Isaacsons.

We flew back to MN on the 24th after being delayed for nearly 2 hours at the Milwaukee airport. Upon arrival, we went to B-pa and Gramma Clare's house for a Christmas celebration. Then came home and promptly put the girls to bed. It was nice to have Santa's arrival as an excuse. We even checked out Santa's progress and impending arrival on an internet Santa tracker! Poor Lily though. I've already mentioned how she is scared of Santa. Well, we kept telling her she had to go to bed so Santa could come. Well, she got all upset and didn't want to go to bed. We finally figured out, she thought Santa was going to come in her room and see her. We assured her that Santa just comes, eats his cookies, and then leaves presents in the family room. After that, she was fine and excited. :-)

Leaving cookies for Santa before bed and the gifts that Santa left!

Christmas morning the girls actually slept later than we thought they would and when Ella got up, she didn't even notice the two giant sleds or mini-trampoline in the corner of the family room. Talk about a letdown for those of us who helped Santa get ready and stayed up putting said trampoline together! Once she did notice though, she was pretty excited about everything.


Don't worry Lily's Christmas is almost over. :-)

We spent the late morning (we were late again, but I beat my dad! He's notorious for being late on Christmas, so as long as I beat him, I was satisfied) and early afternoon at Grandma Mazie's to hang out with the Engelhart family. It was loud, boisterous and fun as always! After that, we headed over to my uncle Joe's to visit with my mom's side of the family. We enjoyed a nice relaxing time there as well as another delicious meal.


Ella with Santa at the Engelharts and everyone at Zawislak family Christmas.

Whew! Christmas was over. We were all set to enjoy the rest of the week with my mom and Dave visiting. Until I got the bright idea on the 26th that maybe we should start a home improvement project. Since my mom and Dave were here and could watch the kids for us. See next post for more on this project and pictures will soon be uploaded from Christmas and our new project. :-)