A Whole Lotta Christmas Goin' On

 Our Christmas Tree 2010

What a special Christmas! With the way our life has been the last couple years...kinda all over the place...I haven't had my own Christmas tree or decorations for three years. They were packed away all that time. How fun it was to dig into them and remember all my special ornaments and things I've collected and received over the years. I really appreciated them all more than ever this Christmas.

Christmas with Q's family~

 We are very excited to be settled in Minnesota again near family.  It was our first Christmas in our new house, so we had the pleasure of hosting this year. We made Asian food {a Marty family favorite}and lots of Christmasy desserts. Our family tradition: to watch It's a Wonderful Life

Christmas With the Andersons~

We always have a special time to celebrate Christmas with our dear friends Joel and Sue and Josh and Alena. Again, we are so excited to have a Minnesota address that we hosted this one too. We live exactly one mile away from these guys...LOVE THAT!

 my special Christmas cut-outs

Sue's AMAZING rum cake...it's tradition

Christmas With Grampa Cook and Great Grandma Besson~

It's been several years since we've been able to celebrate Christmas with Q's dad and grandma and aunts and uncles and cousins on the Cook side of the family. It was so great to reconnect with them this Christmas. Q's dad dressed up as Santa and surprised the kids.

Briar didn't know it was really "Grandpa Cookie" as she likes to call him.

Briar and Great Grandma Besson

Blaser Christmas~

Usually celebrated the day or two after Christmas. We have brunch...open presents...hang out...eat cookies...

There are A LOT of kids involved!  I'm preggo with my parents' 12th grandchild.

Christmas with Dawn, Jon, Sophia and Anthony~

We all met up in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. We celebrated "Christmas at Culvers". We exchanged gifts and caught up and ate frozen custard. The kids hadn't seen each other for a whole year. They were excited --to say the least. The next day, we all hung out at the hotel. The kids swam ALL DAY. They only got out of the pool to eat. We adults sat and talked. Dawnie and I have been "bff's" since Jr. High, but the 4 of us became really good friends in college which ended up in two marriages obviously...and a really special lifelong friendship. We love it that now our kids are best friends too.

...our time together was WAY. TOO. SHORT.