Christmas Eve

We celebrated Christmas Eve in Sioux Falls this year. We had festive travels thanks to our kids who love to sing Christmas music. :)

 

There is no better way to kick off Christmas Eve than a Packers/Vikings game! Haha! I wonder how many family events and celebrations were totally rearranged due to the football game. ;) Of course Lucy and Roman quickly changed into their Packer gear.

 

 

Cheese - check! Meat sticks - check! Grain Belt - check! We were ready for the game. 

 

 

Kevin and Katie and their kids joined us for the game. This auntie was excited to cuddle with sweet little Esther! Love this peanut!

 

 

The boys opted to play with snow globes ...

 

 

and the girls did crafts.

 

 

Nothing better than sequins, glitter, and glue. :)

 

 

After crafts were done, Anna and Lucy decided to do some cheer routines. These girls both love dancing and cheering.

 

 

Midafternoon our crew headed outside for some fun in the snow.

Look at sweet little Esther all bundled up and ready to head out!

 

 

 It was a winter wonderland outdoors and Lucy and Romy were pumped!

 

 

Here are the cousins -

Anna & Peter

 

 

And Esther with her Daddy.

 

 

Ranger loved getting out with the kiddos as well. He enjoys exploring in the snow as much as Chief and Scout used to! There are so many new things to smell in South Dakota. :)

 

 

The children attempted to snow board down Grammy and Grandpa's hill.

 

 

They had a great time. Don't you love Roman's monster/dino face mask? He thinks it is super cool and he likes to make roaring noises when he wears it.

 

 

 The next activity was asking Uncle Kevin to bury everyone in a snow mound.

 

 

 

After playing for a long time outside, we went in for hot cocoa. Lucy is using the I Love Lucy mug that she gave to Grammy and Grandpa for her first Christmas back in 2011.

 

 

 

Not long after our snack, Austin, Mallory and their crew arrived. Lucy was thrilled to pose next to Abby and Julianna in their beautiful dresses and scarves. Their Grandma Lisa went to India recently and brought back some beautiful clothes!

 

 

The trees were so frosty and lovely that we brought all of the cousins outside for photos. Look at this little pack! This year we had a 10, 7, 6, 5, two 3 year olds, 2, and 1 year old in the crowd! Phew!

 

 

Here they are piled up on Grammy and Grandpa's couch. Love this crew so much!

 

 

We ate, drank, sang Christmas songs, and had a great evening together. Romy played the piano for us. :)

 

 

Here are the girls - getting ready to start dinner.

 

 

These three are so sweet! They worked to reenact their holiday picture from 2015.

 

 

The children performed the Christmas story for us and we opened presents!

 

 

It was a wonderful celebration - we are so blessed! We are very thankful that everyone was healthy and happy this Christmas!   

 

The kids got new sleeping bags for Christmas so they were eager to jump in and dream about sugarplums as they waited for Santa to arrive! Merry Christmas Hoekman family! 

Lady and the Tramp

We spent the Christmas of 2016 on our annual tour of the Dakotas! We packed up our car with kids, dog gear, presents, and luggage and headed West on Friday afternoon. We made it to the Twin Cities by nightfall for a little bit of last minute Christmas shopping and some dinner. We are not used to having so many restaurant options at our fingertips - hahahaha! - but on this night we decided to do Italian.

 

Lucy ordered spaghetti and red sauce. Our kids decided to eat the spaghetti together and reenact the Lady and the Tramp scene.

 

 

Hahahaha! Silly kids!

 

 

No better way to kick off Christmas vacation than with a cup of gelato!

 

 

A big shout out to Brian and Amelia who let us hold down the fort in Roseville! We are so grateful for our Twin Cities family. :)

 

Life Lately - December Ediition

Here are some pictures of December life around the Storm household!

 

Reading Christmas books is always a favorite.

 

 

Holiday crafting at the dining room table.

 

Here's the finished product - love my little Santa Claus!

 

 

The kids celebrated holiday sweater day at Day Care. I just love this picture of my crew in their Christmas sweaters and socks.

 

We painted Christmas cutouts and played with stickers.

 

 

I attempted to make a cheeseball pine cone for a potluck at work. I'll be honest - this was a pinterest fail! Ugh - it looked so cute online! Real life - not so much.

Lucy made us this Christmas present - a sweet hot pad!

 

 

We admired the winter scenery!

 

And played outside. :)

 

It would not be Christmas without a little cookie baking. We made some delicious sugar cookies one evening. 

 

 

We also watch the Grinch many times this holiday season!

 

So much fun!

4K Holiday Performance

Dan and I went to Pelican elementary to see Lucy's 4K class perform their Holiday concert. My heart almost exploded with cuteness! They were so sweet!

 

 

The kids all sang a song about candy canes ... something along the lines of, "Oh I took a lick of my peppermint stick because I thought that it tasted yummy. It used to be on my Christmas tree but it tastes much better in my tummy!" They all had little candy canes for props.

 

Then the candy canes were taken away, they were only half way through the show. Most of the kids were fine with this arrangements and moved on ... but a handful were a hot mess! They wanted the candy canes back right away! Haha! This picture is both sad and hilarious! Four happy 4K kids and 2 in tears over candy canes. ;)

 

Lucy loves school so much and she was pumped to have both Mom and Dad at her performance.

 

After the show, we headed to Mrs. Koth's classroom to admire the holiday decorations.

 

Love these reindeer and candy canes.

 

The 4K kids were assigned some homework over the holiday season; they were asked to decorate gingerbread people. Lucy's gingerbread person is the one that looks like Santa Claus at the bottom of the door.

 

Lucy's Christmas lights right next to classroom 111.

 

What a fun day! It was wonderful to see our little peanut perform.