Christmas with the Eckstrom Clan

On Christmas Eve, we had a lovely time at my cousin Julie's house. Her sister, Jenni, and her family were there. It's always fun to laugh about old times with her. We used to live a mile apart on farms in Wisconsin. Boy, do we have some stories. :)

Uncle Phil (my Dad's brother)

My cousins Julie and Philip. (we were so glad to have Philip there . . . we haven't seen him in sooo long . . . he lives in Nebraska)

Caleb sure had fun. So did Jake. :)Colin and CalebWhenever the Eckstrom clan gets together, the instruments all come out. We have a tradition of playing and singing Christmas carols together. It just doesn't feel like Christmas without this part. (I'm on the flute and John is on the trumpet.)

Luke is trying to figure out which instrument he will play someday. Listening and singing from the staircase.Jack played a solo for us.Jake and Jack.
What a blessing it was to worship together on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Pics

I have been meaning to post some pics from Christmas. I have a thousand, so I will spare you and only post my favorites. :) I'll start with these three blessings.

Caroline FINALLY got a Snuggie for Kids!!

Grandpa made his famous oven pancakes for Christmas breakfast. . . always a blessing!!Daddy got a special ornament made by Luke.
Luke got a BIG Nerf gun.

Caroline got the American Girl she wanted . . . complete with jammies to match her own jammies.
yumJake got his Nintendo DS . . . (it was used, but he was OK with that)

Luke got a Bears helmet . . . so cool.
I got a sweet smile from my Lukey . . . a perfect gift.
I hung ornaments for the kids on candy canes . . . a Christmas breakfast tradition.

Caleb and Caroline spent a lot of quality time together. :)
Luke got a very fun present from Uncle Steve and Auntie Becca's family. (thank you!)

I got another sweet smile from my little guy . . . what could be better?

We had a great Christmas and we are so thankful for all the blessings that we have!

Of course, I left out so many photos. I will just HAVE to post more tomorrow.

Static!!

Do you think it's time to get a humidifier??

Night at the Zoo

Last week I took the kids to Cosley Zoo at night so we could see their Festival of Lights. Cosley Zoo is one of our favorite places to go and hang out. It is a little zoo that is owned and run by the Wheaton Park District. It is free and they have a lot of animals that are found in Illinois.
We know the animals by name. :)We usually go when the weather is warm, so it was a very different experience with all of the snow!! (look at Caroline's bare little legs sticking out! kids just don't seem to mind the cold!!)They had hot cocoa for us. Jake rated it the best hot cocoa he had ever tasted. Caroline sure liked it, too.Luke had fun on all the snow piles.Here are a few of the animals. Most of them are in the barn for the winter. I love going in that barn . . . I grew up on a farm and the smell of hay brings me back. ;)

We had a blast. . . snowball fight anyone?!