It's been an unusual holiday this year in one main way - the temperature. It's been unseasonably warm with temperatures in the fifties and sixties even on Christmas. Weird on the outside, but inside the holiday has been reliably the same. We started out the season by finding our christmas tree on Aunt Sandy's property. We saw an adorable evergreen tree sitting beyond a bramble of raspberry bushes and we decided to hike through them to get it. After some hollering and a lot of snags, we got it. Anders cut it down and we dragged it back up a small hill to our car. The tree is beautiful and open, leaving lots of room for nests and birds - which are my favorite part of the tree. With the Swedish straw ornaments and a lot of white lights our tree is the centerpiece.
We celebrated with our Swedish clan a little early this year, and had a traditional smorgasbord on the 23rd with Anna's family. The highlight of this year's celebration was Kaj!! The newest member of our family - born January 14, 2015, he celebrated his first Christmas surrounded by family. Anders and Kuba hovered around him the whole holiday - playing and guiding him around on his toddling legs. He started walking at 9 months - just like Kuba! He is adorable, happy and reminds me so much of Anders when he was a baby. We had 13 for dinner that first night, and everyone pitched in to help. Our table was beautiful with handwoven holiday linens and china from Sweden and adorable baby potted princess evergreen trees we dug up at Sandy's.
The evening ended with a few gift exchanges which included matching pajamas for the cousins. Hannah picked them out for everyone and it was such a great surprise! Even Kaj got a pair!
The gang of cousins were so darn cute!Everyone was so darn cute!!
The next night was Christmas Eve and we celebrated again with a big dinner for both of our families, including grandma and grandpa. Grandpa will be 92 this year so it was a big deal that he made it out. He had a bit of the flu all week so we were afraid he wouldn't feel up to it. This night was our Polish meal ~ full of history and tradition. Sandy, Mom and I made pierogi and ushki on Sunday...enough for fifteen folks with plenty of leftovers. We made cheese, sauerkraut, and mushroom. We started out the night making wishes for the new year - person to person, and the Thelemark's got a glimpse into Polish customs.
The evening ended after a flury of gift opening, with soooo many gifts to go around. The boys were excited with everything and eager for Christmas morning. They awoke early to packed stockings and gifts from Santa which included new scooters and scooting around equipment for the boys. I think Anders favorite gift was an ant farm and some Pokeman cards, and Kuba hasn't decided yet. He's been running a temperature all week long and is not quite his usual zippy self.
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