Christmas

We had a very relaxing Christmas this year. It's not real often that I can say that, I feel like typically we are running around like crazy and we don't actually get to enjoy the time spent with family. Usually on Christmas Eve, we get together at Kevin and Mary's, then on Christmas Day we are home and Mary and Ron come for the day. This year we got together with Kevin and Mary on the Sunday before Christmas, it was nice to break up the holiday a little bit. We had Christmas with my mom's side at the beginning of December. On Christmas Eve we made homemade pizza for dinner and then went to Mass.. When we got home the kids had discovered that our Elf on the Shelf had left, she usually leaves on Christmas Eve when we go to bed, but she left while we were at Mass. She also left a note and a gift for the whole family. We all got a new pair of pj's, a big box of hot chocolate, 2 bags of marshmallows and the movie Despicable Me 2. The kids quickly changed into their new pj's and we settled in for a movie night. Shortly after I popped popcorn and they had their hot chocolate, they all decided it was time for bed so that Santa could come!

Christmas morning we woke up to very excited kids, or I should say we were woken up by four very excited kids! It was nice to be able to just hang out at home, we let the kids have a pj day all day! They opened their gifts from Santa and the gifts from us.  Mary and Ron came down on Christmas morning for brunch and spent the majority of the day with us. Christmas night we  checked out the Kiwanis Lights display in Mankato. All of the kids loved the light display!



4 of 6 kids having hot chocolate after we checked out all the lights!

Jensen Family Christmas

We had our Christmas gathering with my mom's side of the family a couple of weeks ago. We hosted again, we had a light crowd this year due to various things, illness, work, etc. We made the best of it and still had a good time! My mom, Tim, Grandma, Travis and Kirsten all spent the weekend with us. We played games, visited and just had a great time!

Goofy kids...

Opening their gifts from Great Grandma

Addie was so tired she passed out in the chair!

Heated game of Trivial Pursuit

Stella loves Vinny's bed more than him...

Travis and Kirsten

Sleepy Amelia curled up in Grandma's lap!

Stella hanging out with Great Grandma

Amelia Jayne

Christmas day.

For Christmas day we had Mary, Ron, Great Aunt Alice for dinner guests. Gene got bbq ribs from the local meat market and Kevin roasted a couple of chickens in the oven. We also had cheesy hashbrowns, California blend veggies with cheese, corn and rolls. For dessert we had Candy Cane pie, NY style cheesecake and Baby Jesus' birthday cake. Everything hit the spot! I don't think anyone left here hungry! We enjoyed our company and the kids really enjoyed being home all day to be able to play with their new toys! Pictures were hard to come by on Christmas day, the kids weren't in to having their pictures taken.

Stella loves her new baby!

Attempting to get a picture of all the kids

Some what decent picture of all four!

Being goofy!

The kids busy with their new toys!

Christmas morning.

Better late than never with our Christmas pictures! I'm having difficulty getting my pictures to upload properly in one post, so the pictures from Christmas Day after church will be in a separate post! Amelia was the first of the kids up on Christmas morning, she didn't get up until 7:35. I remember as a kid we'd be wide awake at 6 am waiting for our parents to get up so we could see what Santa brought. Apparently our kids were tired out! I made monkey bread for a quick breakfast before Mass. It's a favorite of the kids, though very messy, note to self for next year: stick to muffins/toast or bagels before Christmas mass and not have to wipe caramel out of Stella's hair! This Christmas morning was the best so far! The kids had a ball and it was so much fun watching their excitement when they opened their gifts from Santa. We took video on Kevin's cell phone but I'm having issues getting those to upload to our computer. Our regular video camera quit working, boo! And our one camera that have video capability had dead batteries. So we had the DSLR and a cell phone and we did the best we could! ha!

The kids' Santa sacks lined up on Christmas morning 

in front of the tree...my mom sewed those, aren't they gorgeous?!

(Some day I need her to teach me how to use my sewing machine so I can sew for my grandkids someday!)

Addie asked for "little piggies" from Santa.
Thankfully he figured out just what she meant!

Sheer excitement as she opened her teacup piggies!

Paul was SO Excited that Santa fulfilled his request of Transformers Autobots and Decipticons

Santa brought Amelia an ipod for Christmas and she was SO excited!

Stella even got into unwrapping her gifts!

Santa brought her, her first Cabbage Patch doll!

It was so much fun watching the kids on Christmas morning! Can't wait to see what next year brings!

Christmas Eve

We went to Kevin's dad and Mary's for Christmas eve. In the past we've always gone to one of Kevin Sr.'s siblings for Christmas Eve, this year it was nice to just have a smaller gathering. We did the meal potluck style too. The kids had a ball playing with their cousins and it was nice for all of the adults to be able to visit as well!

Grandpa and Grandma T. with all the grandkids

A semi-decent family picture!

Uncle Brandon was very popular when he was holding Jillian!

Ring around the Rosie--Stella's favorite game!

Grandpa even got in on ring around the rosie!

Amelia just loves her cousin Jillian

Loving up Jillian!

Even Stella loved Jillian

Amelia and Christian opening gifts

Stella preferred to sit on her gifts!