Christmas morning

We waited to open gifts until after church.  Everyone was ready about 15 min before we had to leave, so I thought I'd take some pictures of the kids before we left.  They were great sports and didn't complain once about having to wait.  They were just antsy and wanted to get out of the house so they could get home and open them.  :)

 

That afternoon we went to my parents house for a nice Christmas dinner.  Grandma and Grandpa Becker as well as Uncle Bill were there also.  Along with Matt and Ben's families.   It was fun to see them and hang our for a while. 

We had a wonderful holiday season this year and count our many blessings.  We have so much to be grateful for. 

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.