Happy Holidays!

The week before Christmas was a very busy week, but so much fun at the same time.  The kids had that whole week off of school, which made is seem a little chaotic since they were bouncing off the walls with excitement.  :)  I also made the mistake of painting and rearranging rooms that week.  Never again will I do that right before Christmas!  On Sunday the 18th we had a Christmas dinner at our house with the Falabella family members that live close by.  Udine now has 3 nephews and 1 niece that live within 30-40 min of us, so it is nice to be able to see them more often.  We had a nice dinner and did an impromptu Christmas pageant.  It was great and we are so glad that they all came to celebrate with us. 

Mia was an angel, but refused to go out there unless I agreed that she was Ariel.  So, she was suppose to be an angel, but she thought she was Ariel.  She's a stubborn girl.  ;) 

Udine with his 3 nephews.  I never noticed how much shorter Udine is until looking at this picture!!

David, Daniel, Udine and Julio 

On the 22nd we went to my parent's house so we could exchange gifts with them and enjoy some one on one time with them.  It was a very nice evening, the kids really enjoyed it.

On the 23rd we met up with my family at McDonalds for dinner and then went to Peter and Amanda's house to do our annual gingerbread house decorating and to exchange gifts with cousins.  It's always a lot of fun!!!  The kids look forward to it every year!

Then on the 24th we had Ben's family, Emily's family and my parents over to celebrate.  There is always lots of food to munch on all night.  The kids decorated cookies for Santa.  And they also acted out the Christmas pageant.  This was definitely the most organized we have ever been for the pageant.  Thanks to my sister, Emily.  She assigned parts, got a script and it turned out great!!  Diego was the narrator.  Alessandro was Joseph.  Luca was an innkeeper as well as one of the 3 wisemen and Mia was also a wiseman. 

Our new shirts

December

What a whirlwind!!  I can't believe December is about over!!  It was filled with lots of family traditions and we enjoyed every bit of it.  We went to Cabela's to visit Santa.  Something we do every year with all the family out here.  It's always the same....go to see Santa first, then go to their little shooting area and play with the guns, then off to see the huge aquarium.  Then we go eat at Carl's Jr and let the kids play at the play area while us adults get to sit and chat.  Good times.

Luca and Mia telling Santa what they want

Diego being a stink and making sure Santa knew he still wanted drums since he didn't give them to him last year.  ;) 

I'm at the wrong angle for this picture, but it's the only one I have...all the cousins with Grandma and Grandpa and Santa :) 

Diego and Alessandro shooting the targets 

Udine helping Luca 

Udine made these Christmas tree cookies with the kids and they had so much fun doing it.  They didn't taste the best, but no one cared because they enjoyed making them so much.

Thanksgiving

This was the first time in 13 in years that I have had Thanksgiving with my parents.  Usually we go on a little family trip to CA over Thanksgiving, but it just didn't work out this year.  But that turned out well because my whole family (minus my brother in WI) went to my parent's house for the day.  We got to watch the Packers win and eat some yummy yummy food.  I felt bad for Dad because he left to go pick up my mom's uncle so he could join us for lunch (leaving around noon) and when he got to Uncle Bill's place no one was answering.  He ended up calling the police and they had to break into the house where they found Uncle Bill disoriented on the couch.  I guess his blood sugar level was really really low...so low that had my dad not showed up he would have died.  Peter then left to go help dad board up the window that was broken and then went to the hospital, so they both missed the meal, dad pretty much the whole day.  They got home around 5:00 I think??  Anyway, here are some pictures of the day.  And yes, I realize I am posting way too many, but the turkey bowl was just funny...I want to remember it so I posted lots of them.  :)

THE FEAST

It was such a beautiful day out!!  Some even got to eat outside! 

TURKEY BOWL

There were lots of little ones participating in this so it was very low key, but everyone had a good time. 

The cheerleaders....teaching the little ones.  :) 

Sammy cracks me up!!  He is just a few weeks younger than Luca but he totally gets sports.  He totally knew what was going on in this game and what to do.  Luca not so much.  :) 

hahahaha  love this picture 

this one too....but I like little Sam in the background waiting to catch it.  hahaha 

This cracked me up....Here is the step by step of what happened.

Luca gets the ball handed off to him.... 

takes off running in the wrong direction with big ol' smile

finally figures out he's going the wrong way so turns around and with help from older cousins avoids getting tagged 

still running.... 

go Luca go!!!  (a little encouragement from older cousins) 

Finally!!!  Touch down and high fives!  :) 

Even Alessandro participated which I was happy about.  He said he wasn't going to, so I'm glad he changed his mind. 

PIES, PIES AND MORE PIES

mmm mmm good 

A great way to end a great day.

  We have so much to be thankful for!

As a side note, I want to write what Luca said he was thankful for this year.  They made turkey hats at school and wrote what they were thankful for on the feathers.  He said he was thankful for "my family, my clothes, my toys, my body"  He's a good little boy. :)

Alessandro started a new tradition this year.  He took a brown paper bag and wrote on it "I am thankful for" and asked all of us a few weeks before thanksgiving to write things we were thankful for and on thanksgiving we'd read it.  It was a lot of fun to sit around the table at breakfast and read what everyone had said they were grateful for throughout the weeks.  I have a feeling we'll be doing that again. 

Fall fun

The leaves on our trees took forever to fall this year!  It wasn't until the end of November that I started raking them!!  It took me 5 hours to rake and bag all these stinkin leaves this day.  And we had to do it three more times after that!  I think these pictures were taken on the 5th and last pile of the day.  I was definitely sick of it.  But I shouldn't complain because I really enjoy the shade from these trees in the summer.  At least the kids got to have a little fun while we did it.  :)

Longest run to the leaves ever!!  My kids always do that....I don't know why, but without fail, they will have a huge ol' run before jumping. 

Goodbye

Movember is officially over and this will not be missed!!! :)

Goodbye mustachio!!

Catch up time

In October the kids had crazy hair day at school.  This is what they decided to do for it.

FALL BREAK

The kids had a few days off of school so we decided to do some fun things.  One day we went to Tracy Aviary.  We haven't been there for a few years so it was fun to walk around and see all the birds and to watch the bird show.  During the show the hawk flew so close to my and Mia's heads I swear you could feel it's wings.

We also went to Cornbellys, but I forgot my camera so I have no pictures of it.  :(  It was a blast though.  Ben's family and Emily's family came with us and the kids had a great time.  They had so much more stuff there for my age kids this year so they really enjoyed it.  Usually I'm ready to go after a bit, but this time, we could have stayed and stayed.  We had to leave because they were closing.  Good times. 

Diego got his Webelo award

Diego played flag football for his first time and absolutely LOVED it.  He was on the team with his cousins Cody and Lily and Uncle Peter and Uncle Matt were the coaches.  They were a pretty good team!!  They ended up taking 2nd place!!!

Last weekend we went to a cabin with all the family here.  It has become tradition to do this in November and while there we plan out our holiday schedules to fit in all of our other holiday traditions.  :)  It is always a good time.  Lots of games, lots of food, late night talks, the kids went sledding and enjoyed the hot tub as they had snowball fights while in it, or jumping out, rolling in the snow and hopping back in.  It was funny to watch.  Anyway, we all had a great time!!  But, I failed to bring my camera out, so yet again, I have no pictures to share.  Boo.  (If any of the fam has pictures could you send some my way??)  Thanks!!  :) 

Ok, I think that is it for my mass update.  I hate it when I get behind because I forget all the little details.  Oh well, I guess this is better than nothing!!