Kindergarten Christmas Party

I love that my job affords me the opportunity to participate in some of Izzy's school activities. I wish I could do more (of course :) but I'm thankful for what I can do.  I was really involved in the Halloween party, so I didn't feel as guilty about taking a back seat on the Christmas party.  Since I'm the "official" class photographer for Izzy's class, I decided that's how I would volunteer for this one.  But first, I had to post at the photo booth with Izzy (I think that I had a santa hat on a stick, but the glare from the light kinda made that impossible to see :)

This is one of Izzy's best friends, Seyenna.  These two are lie little peas in a pod :)

The little boy that's standing to the right of Izzy is Brooks, who is actually our neighbor!  He's such a sweet boy, and I think he may have a teeny little crush on Izzy :)  He's not in Izzy's class, but rather in the other kindergarten classroom, but the party is for the whole grade.

SELFIE!!!

Look at this adorable little elf that they all made!  I LOVE this, and we took it home and hung it on our kitchen on the pantry door.  So creative!

Toys for Trees

I love our realtor.  Honestly, the activities they put together are fun, and usually for a worthy cause.  A couple of years ago was a cruise on Lake Minnetonka, and then there was Toys for Trees last year.  We had so much fun then, and met some great friends, that we were excited to do it again.  I think this will be an activities we do every year now....our own little tradition.

This year, it was FREEEEZING.  Way too cold for a sleigh ride.....even inside it was still cold, as you could tell by Izzy keeping her hat AND coat on!

We met up with friends we met there last year, Sharon and James and their 3 kids.  We've gone out to dinner and drinks with them a couple of times, and always have a blast.  After we grabbed breakfast and visited, we headed outside to pick out our tree.  Last year I picked a wreath because we had our artificial Christmas tree, but we decided to try a real Christmas tree this year.  And honestly, I don't think we'll ever go back to a fake tree again.

It was a little nerve-wracking picking out a tree, since they were probably cut down a while ago and they're all wrapped up.  These things were frozen solid, but I picked out one of the tallest ones I could find.  They (Stafford Realty) do a great job of getting volunteers, and there were plenty of people to help, including someone to cut off the bottom end of the tree trunk.

Ahhhh...it just smelled so good outside....they had a fire outside, so combine that with the smell of a fresh pine tree in our car, and I was in heaven.  What a great way to start the holiday season!

Christmas card photo!

It's that time of the year again!

Gettin' ready for Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Bri

Grandma, Grandpa and Auntie Bri came up a couple of days after Christmas, so we had to get the house back in order and ready for their visit.

This included a bath for Izzy (not because she needed one, but because I needed a half hour without interruptions!  :)

Lemmy has staked his claim on the recliner

photobomb by Rosie

They brought an absolutely ridiculous amount of presents.  The whole back of Dad's truck must've been filled with these.

And Izzy LOVED opening more.  In this photo, she's wearing the leotard that I fixed at the hotel in Fargo, along with slippers and a santa hat.  Adorable.

This is a tradition I have with my Dad.  Every year, without fail, I get him 2 boxes of chocolate-covered cherries.  He knows I'm always going to get them, and knows exactly what box they're in.  No surprise, but a fun tradition

Izzy got some 3-D book, and was trying on the required equipment, which Auntie Bri found hilarious.  Do you know how hard it is to explain 3-D to a 4 1/2 year old?

And proud little Rosie was as happy as a clam

CHRISTMAS!!!

FINALLY :)

Santa was good to the Trunk family this year...he even got Lemmy a mini-condo!

little snugglebutt wanted to get in on the action

Yes, she let us sleep in (thank you iPad) 

Santa got her a Tag reader because Izzy is so ready to learn to read now :)

Rosie and Murphy also received some gifts.  This is a little racoon-thing that has a plastic water bottle in it  for that crinkle sound.  Sadly, that didn't last long with this dog...

Dec 25 2012 - Murphy protecting his toy from Jenn Trunk on Vimeo.

I had a pen made for Joacim by the husband of a friend of mine that I worked with at Eli Lilly.  It's a hand-carved wooden pen with a bullet casing at the end and a real trigger action to activate the pen.  It's beautiful and amazingly intricate.  He loved it ;)

Santa got Pappa an eyepiece for his Swarovski binoculars to replace the one that was lost on our houseboat trip this past summer

I got Izzy a Wii game, Just Dance 4, because I think it's time for her to be able to play.  She has to stand on the sofa in order for the Wii to "see" her, but she didn't mind.  

Just Dance 4 is HARD.  I was exhausted after one Carly Rae song (yes, Call Me Maybe), so we played carnival games like skee-ball instead.

And Santa's reindeer DID partake of the food

See all of the deer prints?

I told you it didn't last long.  It lost an ear after the first hour, and a couple more later it was without a tail.  By the end of the day I had to get rid of the pieces..poor poor racoon :)

We had such a great day just hanging out, playing games, and truly enjoying every second of it!

1st Christmas Eve in our new home

We didn't get back from Daniel and Caroline's until late, so we didn't have as much time to prepare for Santa's arrival, but we made the most of the time we had.

first off, we had to get the reindeer food that we got from Izzy's daycare

she sprinkled it on the snow so they could eat it when Santa stopped to deliver presents

Izzy was VERY concerned about the reindeer being able to see the food...it wasn't easy to assure her that they would

And then we had to get milk and cookies ready.  Santa got a small mug of milk and 2 pepparkakor cookies, and we put them on a little cup/plate set that my Grandma sent to Izzy for Christmas.  A full-circle thing, if you will.

At this stage, it's awesome.  She said good-bye to Alfie, since Santa was going to take him back when he stopped overnight.  She and Pappa had a long conversation and it was ADORABLE

Dec 24 2012 - Izzy's questions about Rudolph and Santa from Jenn Trunk on Vimeo.

Swedish Christmas on Christmas Eve

Our dear friends, Daniel and Caroline, invited us over to their house to celebrate Christmas, Swedish style.  Caroline's family was visiting from Sweden, and we were going over to watch the traditional Swedish cartoons and partake of the lovely julbord :)

but first we had to pretty up our nails and have some girl time

I'm pretty sure that we were watching the typical Swedish cartoons in this photo (Kalle Anka,or Donald Duck as we American's know it).  We didn't do it at 3:00pm (which is tradition), but we DID watch them :)

Caroline and her mother made a huge amount of wonderful food....LOTS of yummy meat :)

And here is Joacim in his sexy ugly sweater :)  He wore this to our neighbor's party the week before.  It's so funny because it totally shrunk after I washed it, and went almost half-way up his back!

Sill (or herring...whatever you want to call it, it's still gross ;)

mmmmmmmmm...meatballs

Izzy essentially redecorated their Christmas tree.  We don't do tinsel on ours due to Lemmy eating it, so she was intrigued, and kept replacing it

Cute little Christmas troll

beautiful angel-wing ornament...not sure if there's any personal value to this for Daniel or Caroline, but it's lovely

Here's the julstjärna (or Christmas Star).  It seems like their in nearly every window in Malmö during the holiday season

We had a lovely time, and want to thank Daniel and Caroline and her family for inviting us to spend Christmas with them.

Holidazzle Parade

One of the traditions here in Minneapolis is the Holidazzle parade.  It's sponsored by Target, and runs along Nicollet Mall every Thursday through Sunday from Thanksgiving weekend to Christmas.  Of course we waited until the last minute to go, but I think it was worth it.  The lights were great, but it was COLD AS HELL.  Apparently there are heated seats you can buy, which is exactly what we'll do next year.  And if we don't get a hold of those, then we're wearing our snow suits!

we had dinner at Kieran's Irish Pub beforehand, and it was fantastic

typical Irish pub atmosphere, but cozier

especially with the table lamps and firepit

Joacim wanted a picture of his perfect pour

Izzy was intensely focusing on her coloring skills

And then it was time to wait for the parade.  I cannot begin to describe how cold it was....

But look at all the people (even in the skywalk!)  This is a big tradition here!

FINALLY the floats (notice the Target bullseye logo on the "elf" suspenders

Wizard of Oz float

with accompanying bicycling Wicked Witch of the East

Even Nicholas David (3rd runner up from The Voice) made an appearance

and finally the finale

Rudolph

and SANTA!!!

And then back to the car as fast as humanly possible.  I'm so glad I started keeping a blanket in the car..it was desperately needed for Izzy's cold feet.  She wore Chuck Taylor's, and her feet were freezing (her decision, not mine :)

and then we heard about a crazy blinky house in Waconia, so we headed there before home....they weren't kidding....this family went crazy all-out for the lights (I bet the neighbors must hate them with all the traffic they generate in the cul-de-sac :)

Dec 21 2012 - blinky house from Jenn Trunk on Vimeo.