Since we were going to be gone for nearly two weeks we needed to get in some skating before we left. Theo and I have been skating almost every night that we can since we've put the rink up.  Theo got really into ice skating this year. On the Saturday before we left we had our family Christmas. Once everyone was awake the kids got to open their presents.  Meadow made Theo a blue scarf and a Looney Tunes pillowcase. 

While we were packing for our big, week long, Chritmas-New Year's trip to Chicago, Michigan and the cottage, we decided it would be best to open my mom's present at our house. She had picked them out and sent them to our house after all.   An Isabella dress for Meadow.  We got on FaceTime with Grandma Nana and opened her gifts.  And a cat umbrella for Meadow. Theo got more mini PicassoTiles and Where's Waldo books. Did you know that series is called Where's Wally in the UK, where it came from? Then the kids exchanged their gifts for each other. A Pop-It game for Theo and the last remaining Lego Harry Potter set for Meadow. Then the kids opened presents from us. This way they could play before our long trip. Theo got Kirby and the Forgotten Land. Meadow was ecstatic for her Encanto Lego house. We originally had planned to leave on the 23rd but the weather changed our plans. We had to push everything by a day and left on Christmas Eve instead. The drive from Minneapolis t...

We had a lot of visitors up at the cottage this week. A "kid" my sister used to babysit was up with a couple friends fishing plus my parents. He's now in college. No longer a kid. Meadow got to open a belated birthday present.  A mermaid outfit. She had been wanting one for a long time. I carried my little gal down to the lake. Mermaids can't walk.

My mom recently had a quadruple bypass surgery. I was planning on heading to Michigan to help her out at the tail end of August. Things quickly changed and I was heading to Grand Rapids on a few days notice. Meanwhile, I stayed behind. I'm back to working a few days in the office and after spending the last few months together we needed a little break. We stopped in Chicago at my brother and sister-in-law's place to split up the nine hour drive. I am jealous, Chicago in the summer is the best.  They treated us to a grill out and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

 Before heading out on our trip we let the kids open their Christmas gifts from us. A knitted sweater for Theo and a kitty dress for Meadow (I fixed the straps for her) both made by me. I wanna a sweater. Scott got them new compact sleeping bags. We all got smaller sleeping bags this year and we'll now have a lot more room in our car. This year we had talked about hosting my family at the cottage. Then meeting up in Milwaukee, then meeting in Chicago. But in the end we made stops in Chicago and Lowell this Christmas. We left on a Sunday which was nice to have a few days to prepare. On the way down to Chicago we stopped at our favorite roadside restaurant, Foster Cheese Haus. We had plans to break up our drives so we didn't have to rush like we normally do. We had made it just before the cheese haus was set to close for the winter. Just not enough folks stop here in winter and snowmobile season is becoming shorter and shorter this far so...