Christmas and lack of Winter

Okay, so I'm like 4 months behind, but who is really counting? The last time I posted was Peter's party and then I promised to post x-mas pics. So this post is about our wonderful Christmas and lack of winter in Minnesota this year. We will start with NO SNOW at Christmas.....I don't remember the last time that has happened. The month of December was celebrated with 2 different x-mas parties with Santa, 2 x-mas concerts and the remainder filled with family and friends.....just the way we like it. The boys received an early x-mas present from Santa...."The Elf on the Shelf." The boys named him Henry-Jack and at first they were VERY skeptical, but by the time they had to say good-bye until next year, they were quite sad to see him go. We headed to our favorite tree lot "BIG John's" and spotted our favorite tree, but decided to keep browsing, when another family snatched up our perfect tree :(.......don't worry, we found another perfect tree. The boys helped us out with their fine decorating skills and the tree was beautiful. T, J, and P also made some pretty sweet gingerbread houses with Green Grandma one afternoon. The boys and I made some awesome sugar cookies this year thanks to Lisa Cronk's family recipe :) Thanks Lisa.......the cookies were so tasty, the boys gobbled them up as if they were a bunch of ravaging turkeys ;).

We spent Christmas eve at my parents house and Christmas day with Brian's family. I will leave out the part where I sprained my ankle on Christmas day carrying Peter out to the car b/c he was in his jammies:(.

We brought in the New Year playing scrabble......pretty boring, I know, but when you have kids that's the way life is.

The boys have been busy taking Karate, soccer, and swimming this past fall and winter.

Brian's dad and I have taken the boys up to Wild Mountain to take skiing lessons a few times and they LOVED IT. Tom and Joe say Peter only has one speed.......FAST!

So, that's all I have for now......enjoy the pics.

January 5th 2012-boys go skiing for the first time at Wild Mountain in Taylors Falls.

Peter the skiing pro.
Peter drinking milk out if his silly glasses Auntie Renee and Uncle Ric gave them.
How did Santa know I LOVE TIC TACS!
Peter the elf.
An attempt at getting all 7 kids in 1 pic at the same time.
T, P, & J
Joe and Tom as shepards in the Sunday School concert.
Santa came to visit again at our neighbor's house, so they were able to tell him what they wanted for christmas.......can u guess what they wanted????? GARBAGE TRUCKS
Gingerbread houses created and designed by the Vnak boys under the direction of Green Grandma.
Chef Joseph, Chef Peter, and Chef Thomas orchestrating the marvelous makings of sugar cooks.
Henry-Jack eating peanut butter cooks by the fireplace. He also had managed to get a glass of milk to go with his cookies.
Here is the almost perfect tree.....remember the another family spotted ours and swiped it.

Here is Auntie Dee with our boys and Brian's cousin Kate's girls at the Golden Valley Christmas party.