Holiday Fever

Christmas has officially arrived at the Schnelle house. We have been busy with holiday fever almost as soon as we returned from Thanksgiving in Denver. A few days after we were home, my Mom came to stay with us for a couple of weeks. We had a great time gallivanting around, shopping, and decorating. And, in typical Mom fashion, there was lots of cooking. Yummy, yummy cooking.
Last weekend, my Step-dad John joined us for a long weekend. As usual, when John is here, he and Gabe get a lot of work done on the basement.

While they were here, we celebrated an early Christmas with them. Mia is now old enough to get into the Christmas Spirit. She knows who Santa Clause is and really loves the Christmas tree and all the lights.
As you can imagine, she got pretty into the presents too. When she opened one she would exclaim, "Oh my goodness!" So cute!



Of course, she wanted to help everyone else open their gifts too. Who wouldn't want to help open this sucker?

Mommy got her first official sewing machine! Does that mean I get a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval? Mia loves to help Grandpa John eat popcorn too. (It wasn't really popcorn. It was Pirates Booty...shhhhh!)
Looks like we have started a new Schnelle tradition. Coming down with the dreaded cold/flu right around the holidays. This time, it hit us all. Mia got it first, and we all fell like dominoes after that. I think my poor mother was hit the worst.

As quickly as they came, they had to go home. We miss them already and look forward to our next rendezvous.

In the meantime, we have a lot of activity going on here. We head down south this weekend to celebrate Christmas with the Schnelle family. Then we are hosting Christmas here at home with my Dad and Linda. It is the start of our new tradition of Mia waking up at home on Christmas Morning. Gabe's mom will be coming to join in the fun as well. Mia's first true Christmas experience will be a sight to behold!