Christmas in America

Wow - can't believe we're coming up on the end of January already!  We've had quite the busy last six weeks - including a wonderful trip back to the states for Christmas.  We tried to cram as much "Belgian Christmas" into the two weeks of December we were here - including a couple of trips to Christmas markets, my second annual cookie exchange and the American Women's Club Mom's of Young Children's group Christmas party.

Rachel and I at our Christmas cookie exchange.  We had quite the Christmas-themed spread.

Carmen, Bo and Scott at the crafts table at the MOYC Christmas party.

"Jingle Bells"

Will was the proud winner of the 'guess how many M&M's are in the jar' game.  

Santa look familiar?? :)

It was the funniest thing I've seen in quite a while.  I nearly wet my pants when I heard the 'Ho ho ho' coming up the stairs.  

Scott was a good sport - and did a very good job - I was quite impressed!  I ended up telling Will before he came out, for fear that he'd blurt out Santa's true identity to all his little friends.  I'm sure I could've gotten away with not telling him - and Bo was clueless.  

Ice skating at the Brussels Christmas market.  

It was a bit of a whirlwind that last week before we left for the states, and Bo threw a wrench into things by getting a stomach bug a day and a half before we were supposed to get on the plane.  About ten minutes after the Santa pictures were taken at the Christmas party, he threw up ALL OVER one of my friends who just happened to pick him up because he was crying - and as she put him down, he continued to do it while walking across the floor towards Scott.  It was mortifying.  And disgusting.  We thought maybe it was just a fluke, but he was up all night doing the same.  Our prayers were answered, as none of the rest of us got it.  I should've known something was up - prior to 'the incident' he kept whining that his 'tongue was spicy'...

But all was well, and we made our flight back to the states and home without incident - no mechanical problems, missed connections, lost luggage, or broken beer bottles in suitcases to make our trip back more exciting this time.  The boys and I spent the first week in Dyersville before heading up to Minneapolis to spend a few days with Jen and Todd before Scott flew in on the 23rd.  We were consistently up at the crack of dawn, as 1am Iowa time felt like 8am to us, who were still on Belgian time.  And that is indeed what hour Bo awoke the first night we were back, asking for cheerios and blueberries.  We managed to keep him in bed until about 5:30, but after that we were up - and felt wide awake.  It's the craziest feeling.  But come about 9pm, and I felt ready to crash.

Celebrating the December 1st birthdays at Happy Joe's in Dyersville - the boys at Happy Joe's four times, myself three, and Scott two:)

Our Gingerbread House creation - this year out of a box - much easier.

I'm sure he ate more than he contributed decorations for.

The cousins together again - a very fun reunion.

Bo and Luke are actually playing together now.

Snuggling in for the Polar Express.

Will and his bud Carter - these two have a lot of fun together.  We really miss Carter here!

I have a picture of the older boys - Will and Matthew - with these shirts on together from two years ago...sniff.

We were excited to meet the newest member of the Miller clan - John.  Definitely another Miller boy!  

And the newest grandchild - number 19 - Marlee.  A very sweet little baby!

The Egger family - including Grandma Egger there in the background.

The Knights - Christmas presents.

We headed back down to Dyersville on the morning of the 24th, leaving by 8AM, lest we miss any of the Broncos game....unfortunately, they weren't on tv at my parents house...and they lost.  We all went to Christmas Eve mass that afternoon, then my parents hosted my dad's side of the family at the house that night.

We had a very nice and relaxing Christmas day - just hanging out at the house, napping, and cooking dinner and exchanging gifts with each other that night at the house.

The newest addition to Will's super hero costume repertoire - Wolverine, from X-Men, in case you didn't know.

The next few days were spent much the same way - catching up with friends, eating, hanging out at home, and more eating.

A hot game of Tripoley.

Riding the carousel with Amaya.

Will and Isaiah, my friend Malena's little boy.  

The boys doing one of their favorites - wrestling.  Doesn't matter where or with who - I think Grandma even got her fair share of wrestling in while we were there.

We decided to make a trip down to Dallas to visit Scott's dad and Pat.  It was a bit of a drive - 13 1/2 hours going down and 14 coming back - but overall it went very well.  We only only had to stop twice on the way down and the boys only got out two times again on the way back - Scott and I were the problems coming back!  Thankfully, we've been blessed with two very good car drivers.  We had a lot of fun in Dallas - and are very thankful we were able to make the trip.  There were five Miller siblings total there - all with spouses, significant others and kids - making for a total of 21 people staying at the house.  Any more and we probably would have been busting at the seams, but everything seemed to go quite well - and all had a little piece of space to call their own - whether it was a bed, pull-out couch, air mattress or spot on the floor.  The boys had a great time playing with their cousins - it's fun to get them together.  Plus we had great weather while we were there - in the 70's for a couple of days!

Happy 4th birthday to Jacob!

Waiting for the longhorns at the Stockyards in Fort Worth.  Twice a day the 'cowboys' basically walk the longhorns from one pen to another.  It's pretty anticlimactic....the first time we went I was envisioning a big stampede of longhorns barreling down the street with cowboys on horses lassoing and corralling them...not so.  

The longhorns are pretty impressive, though.  And it's a cool atmosphere at the Stockyards - very historical western.  It's one of my favorite places to go when we visit.

Uncle Andrew giving the boys their first taste of Pop Rocks.

Bo wasn't so sure...

There was a 'gun fight' after the 'stampede'...Will loved every second, but I had to hide out with Bo in the shops - it terrified him.  Here they are posing afterwards with one of the cowboys.

All the Grandkids there and Papa Don

This was a feat trying to get this picture, let me tell you.

Scott trying to bogart the Powers family picture.

Scott and Liam...we got to meet 'baby' Liam for the first time ever!  And he's not a baby anymore - he'll be two in June.

Enjoying a late-night game of Tripoley.

Poor Emily.

Batman mask that Grandma Pat made from the back of a Cheerios box.

Uncle Tim on his 'bed' with Elaina.

After heading back up to Iowa, Scott had a meeting in Chicago and we all just spent a couple of more days hanging out before going back up to Minneapolis for the weekend before we flew out.  I feel like we, unfortunately, didn't get a whole lot of time in Minneapolis this time around.  There were quite a few people we didn't get to see and play dates we didn't get to have.  I was able to make it into the new Children's Hospital where I may be going back to and see some co-workers.  The place is beautiful - quite the change from where they came from!  

Bo LOVES Mollie - cried and cried when she had to leave my parents house Christmas Eve night.  They're coming to visit in a couple of months...poor Mollie may not get a moment to herself the entire time she's here.

Feeding Jake's snake...it was the most disgusting thing I've seen in quite a while - and Will keeps asking if we can get a pet snake.

Watching Star Wars for the first time.

Celebrating Matthew's birthday.

 Fun times.  It all went too fast, of course.  Our trip back was pretty uneventful.  Nobody slept a whole lot, though, and jet lag was terrible this time.  The first few days the boys slept in until after noon, but then would be up for hours overnight.  It lasted about a week, until the following Sunday when Will got about 4 1/2 hours of sleep and I still made him go to school - mean, evil mom - but I figured that was the only way we were going to kick our jet lag.  It worked for the boys, but I swear, I'm still not back to normal!  Thank goodness I don't have to fly across time zones on a regular basis - I could not handle it.

We don't have too many plans in the near future.  Will's in a basketball league now that Scott's coaching, which is pretty entertaining.  I'm trying to talk Scott into going somewhere the last week of February when the boys have a week off school.  I'm getting the itch to travel again...