Wisconsin: Part I

We spent the first part of our trip at Grandpa J and Grandma V's house. On the first day, we celebrated Christmas in the morning by opening presents and having Christmas breakfast.








Then family came over for some more Christmas fun!




The next day we all went bowling just like we did last year. The last time we went bowling was with family last Christmas, so Max was looking forward to going again.






That night Andy and I went to the Badger basketball game, our annual date night, while Max went out to dinner with his grandparents and made grandma be a "doggy".




On Thursday, we braved the cold weather and took Max sledding since it was snowing all day. Max was super excited to go sledding even though it was only 5 degrees out that day. He was all bundled up and grandpa J and grandma V took him to the park. Andy and I showed up just long enough to get a few pictures and head back to the house. We were not dressed appropriately for sledding, but Max and his grandparents were all bundled up.








On Friday morning we took some pictures before we headed to grandma L's house in Verona.  

That concluded the first part of our very cold, week long, trip to Wisconsin.

Christmas Weekend

We kicked off Christmas weekend with a crystal snowflake project. Max had fun with this and our four snowflakes turned out pretty cool.

We also went to zoo lights at the Phoenix Zoo. It was a bit chilly out, but we knew we couldn’t complain since our upcoming trip to WI was going to be much colder.

We did another Christmas project where Max demolished green Christmas trees with vinegar.

We had a low key Christmas Eve where we invited Tayler and Christian over for steak and crab dinner. It was our first time doing crab legs and it turned out awesome...probably because Andy was in charge of it.  Once Max was in bed it was time for Andy to do his daddy duties and assemble toys. The big item this year was a trampoline. Andy didn’t want to assemble outside in the “cold” so he started inside and then we moved it outside when I reminded him that it was a bad idea to assemble it completely inside.

Max woke Christmas morning to see that Santa arrived.

We opened presents.

The trampoline was a hit!

The remote control boat for the pool was pretty cool and Max got the hang of the remote.

Then in the late afternoon we headed to the airport where Max and I got flight pillows anticipating a nap on the plane. 

We landed in Chicago where it was a balmy negative five degrees out. Quite the shock going from 65/70 degrees to a brisk negative five. I sit here and type this as I am really looking forward to landing in Phx tonight where it will be about 50 degrees. It’s currently negative six degrees in Madison. Brr!

Cookie the Elf

Our Elf, Cookie, did a lot of crazy things during the month of December. Max woke many mornings with plenty of giggles when he found Cookie fishing, paratrooping from the fan, conducting a train, reading atop a book tower, etc. Here are some of the pictures of Cookie’s shenanigans.

Pre-K Xmas Party

On Thursday I got to join Max at school for his Christmas party. It's always fun to show up at Max's school and see the huge smile on his face when he sees me. This week he was out Monday - Wednesday due to a very bad cold that he is fighting, so when he was able to go to school on Thursday I was relieved that he wouldn't miss his Christmas party.

I arrived at his school to a big smile on his very sick little face. Even though he was tired and fighting a cold he was super excited to be at school and have me there to help him build his gingerbread house.








After all the kids made their house's they got together and gave Mrs. Lisa a wreath with gift cards from all of her favorite places. This was super cute. All of the kids gave Mrs. Lisa a big Christmas hug.


Another school function that I am appreciative that I could participate in.

Weekend Update

Friday night Max and I had a mommy and Max date. We went to the restaurant of his choice and he was super excited for this.


For our date night, we also picked up ingredients to make Christmas cookies this weekend.


We went to see the Nutcracker this weekend and I was hoping to make it a family tradition. Andy and I decided to get Max excited for it, but let him decide if he likes it or not before we force him into this annual tradition. St. Nick did bring Max a Nutcracker book that played the music throughout to assist in getting him excited for the ballet. He was super excited, but he didn't realize what he was getting himself into. I mean we were going to the ballet, not a Paw Patrol Live concert, which might be a little bit of a comparison that I might have made.






We went, he experienced it and he only enjoyed two scenes: the sword fight and the Bon Bon girls.
He started out excited for it, but he got bored quickly. I believe it is because there is no talking at the ballet. He was a good sport about it though. We stayed the whole time and he knew how much I wanted to go, so afterwards he told me that he liked the Nutcracker. I said "Buddy, you really didn't like it, did you?" He said "No, I really didn't." It was sweet of him though to pretend since he knows how much I like the Nutcracker. We will see if we do it again next year as a family or if I just go with some friends.