The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

We've really been enjoying having so much family time over Ben's super long Christmas break!

Below are pictures from some of our outings.  The only downside this year is that we've hardly had any snow.  In Minnesota!  Who woulda thought, especially after last year?

On Christmas Eve, we made and decorated sugar cookies, the missionaries came over to give us a Christmas quiz/game and helped decorate a few cookies, and we did a our typical Christmas Eve night traditions, including our international dinner, for which we made Finnish meatballs for the first time!

We had a wonderful Christmas Day--I love when Christmas is on Sunday.  I played flute with the ward choir for one of the songs; it felt good to get my flute out again.  

Abram enjoyed ripping tissue paper, and we just relaxed and skyped with our families (who we'll be flying out to visit this Friday!).

We've also gotten together with good friends for dinner, cinnamon rolls, and games. 

And for the pictures...

The American Swedish Institute downtown had a "Nordic Christmas" Exhibit, showing Christmas displays from Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, and Finland!
It was fun to read about the different cultural traditions; most of them centered around spending time with family, going to church, and making special food.

The Swedish Christmas display

In Iceland, instead of Santa Claus, they have 13 "Christmas Lads"

The Finnish Christmas room was my favorite, of course!

Abram was so good in the stroller while we walked around the museum.  He even liked the Swedish Dala horse without putting a coin in the slot.  :)

Oh, that sweet face!

We went downtown to walk around and look at the Christmas decorations.  We didn't have to walk outside at all because of the skyways!  Downtown Minneapolis is pretty cool.

Abram loved to watch the cars through the skyway windows!

We planned on seeing the Macy's Santa display, but decided against the 45-minute wait!  Instead we had lunch and just enjoyed walking around.

We also went to the Mall of America.

They had lots of pretty decorations.

I am always astounded at how big the Mall is--here you can see the amusement park in the background.

Abram's first Christmas

Apparently, he didn't love the hat his first time trying it on.

We also gave Abram a much-needed haircut (#2)...but this time decided to go a little shorter so it'd last longer...(bad idea).  And I wanted to use scissors, not clippers, so it wasn't tooo short (another bad idea).
This is the before.
And...
I didn't take an after-shot.
It was a traumatic experience for us all, with Ben bear-hugging Abram, Abram screaming, me frantically clipping, trying not to cry at my hack job, etc.
I was distraught about cutting off all my baby's hair and about how much older he looked...
but he is still cute as ever, of course.

And here we are the day after...still alive.  :)

I've since tried to fix & blend some places since then; just 30 seconds here and  there (as long as he stays still).  Oh well.  Maybe next time won't be so traumatic!

All in all, we are so blessed and grateful and 

excited to start a new year.

Here's to 2012!