5 on Friday

1. I had my department holiday party at Cowboy Jacks in West Glen Friday night.  With such a busy week, we decided it was best for Nick to stay home with the girls and get them to bed at an early hour.  

2. We visited the North Pole via the Boone Scenic Valley Railroad Santa Express on Saturday night!  Well, technically we didn't leave the state of Iowa.  But Santa and Mrs. Claus where there.  Ellie may have commented that we were not going fast enough to get to the North Pole in time (smart kid).  And she wondered what would happen if the Santa Express and the Polar Express got there at the same time--- would she see the kids from the Polar Express (can you guess her favorite holiday movie)?   The ride must have lived up to her expectations, as she wants to go again next year.

3. We celebrated Christmas with the Thorson/Larson side on Sunday.  Cute story from the day: Neve got scared by her older (and much bigger) cousin when we first arrived.  Even when I was holding her she was still bawling... so I said "Let's go find Grandpa" and we headed to where he was (she hadn't seen him yet).   The instant she saw him she wanted him to hold her and she stopped crying.   I guess there is such thing as a Grandpa's Touch instead of a Mommy's Touch. It was really cute.

4. Nick and I worked Christmas Eve day, so the girls got to go to day-care in their PJ's!   There were only a handful of kids at the center, so they combined rooms and the girls had a great time being in the same class for once!   That evening we celebrated our own family Christmas- complete with opening gifts, making sugar cookies, hot cocoa, wine & cheese night (wine for the grow-ups only) and lighting the Advent candles one last time.   I think the girls are really going to miss the Advent candles- Ellie was super excited about them all season.

5. We opened our Santa gifts and went to church before heading to Ames on Christmas Day.  For the first time since Thanksgiving of last year we had the entire Greving family together.  There are 20 of us now and it makes for a busy house--- I love it!   The girls had a blast playing with all of their cousins.