Friday morning I packed clothes, wrapped presents that were to be taken with us, and prepared for the trip to Andrew’s parents house. We left right after lunch and arrived around four-thirty that afternoon. David was so excited to go to G-pa and Grand-mama’s house! Emma was happy and excited too, once we arrived! 🙂 Andrew’s mom, Alesia, had their beautiful Christmas tree up with presents for the grand kids under and around it.

The kids played for a while after we arrived then we went to dinner. After dinner David and Emma were treated to mini waffle ice cream cones. It is the first time Emma has ever had an ice cream cone. (Grand-mama and G-pa like to spoil the kids!) Her expressions were so cute and funny. At first she wasn’t sure about it. By the end she loved it, and was so happy!

 

After the kids went to bed, we watched the Christmas episode of When Calls the Heart. I love that show! Andrew indulged me and watched it too. (He secretly likes this show, he just doesn’t want any one to know it. 🙂 It was the perfect, feel good Christmas movie for the occasion.

David woke up early Saturday morning! Somewhere around five or five-thirty! (I know because I heard him climb out of bed.) He was so excited to open presents. He couldn’t hardly stand it, bless his heart!  He went and snuggled with G-pa and Grand-mama for a while. I continued to sleep. Later that morning Andrew’s brothers and their families arrived! The Kjorlaug family has quadrupled in size since Andrew and I first met. Because of this we all buy for the kids, and draw names amongst the adults. This year however, us adults went in together and bought a bunk bed for Jim and Alesia for Christmas. They have been wanting one of these to accommodate room for all the grand kids! David wanted to sleep on the top bunk! This was a picture of him Saturday morning playing on the bed.

We opened gifts later that morning and then had brunch. It was so much fun watching the kids open presents! They know how to love Christmas!  I took several pictures of this chaotic, ravaging of gifts!

 

Emma didn’t really know what to think about all the chaos and was not that into opening her gifts. However, she did love them once she found out what was inside. Her favorite gift was a slide that Jim and Alesia bought for her. Emma loves to slide!

Here is a picture of Andrew playing with Oliver and Emma! They are such cuties! 🙂

Later that afternoon David was telling Grand-mama how he loved his presents, and that he got everything he wanted. He was so sweet. I wish I could have recorded him saying it!  This was David after about fifteen minutes in the car on our way home! 🙂

It was a great time with family and watching the kids open gifts. It was the perfect beginning to the week of joy!

I played one of my favorite Christmas songs today at church, Mary Did You Know. Today’s theme at church was Mary. So this song automatically popped into my head to play. If you are unfamiliar with this song I encourage you to listen to it. It was made popular by Mark Lowry several years ago.  I hope you enjoy listening to it on my worship music archives page!

I made a delicious pan seared salmon today, with rice and asparagus! I seasoned the salmon with some kosher salt, fresh ground pepper, a little garlic salt and oregano. Heated some butter and olive oil in my iron skillet, and then cooked the fish. It tasted amazing!

We had movie night at Andrew’s church this evening. The church provided soup and sandwiches and we all watched Dr. Suess’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Charlie Brown’s Christmas. It was a lot of fun!

Here is our menu for the week!

Mmm…delicious!

Monday: Lunch, Pasta Alfredo. Dinner, Chicken Enchilada Soup. (Since I didn’t get to make it tonight.)

Tuesday: Lunch, Eat Out. (I have Christmas shopping to finish!) Dinner, Steaks, Potato Latke with roasted vegetables.

Wednesday: Lunch, Polish sausage and white beans. Dinner, Lasagna.

Thursday: Quesadillas. Dinner, Oven baked pork chops, butternut squash, and green beans.

Friday: Lunch, Ramen Stir fry. Dinner, Tacos.

Saturday: Cheeseburgers and french fries. Dinner, Shrimp Scampi, baked potatoes and broccoli.

Sunday: Lunch, Pot roast, carrots, mashed potatoes, green beans. Dinner, Pizza.