{ advent calendar }

To help with the countdown to Christmas, we did an advent calendar again this year. Most of the days had "experiences" and not "things". One of them said they needed to deliver bagels to the fire station and thank the firemen and women for their service. So after preschool, we headed to pick up bagels and stop by our neighborhood fire station to deliver.

The firefighters were so grateful and made the generous offer to come in and see the firetrucks. On top of that, they gave us a full tour of their lounge, bedrooms, and hose storage.

The kids had a blast and it was fun to spread the holiday cheer by giving!

One of the other advent experiences and also an annual tradition, is to head downtown to see the Macy's Christmas display, visit Santa, and have lunch with Chop.

And low and behold, they asked for motorcycles again. And after stopping at Target later this season, they discovered kid motorcycles. Hint: Santa will not be delivering this request!

{ fa lal la la la }

Not a very exciting post of pictures but I felt it was my motherly obligation to document their pre-k Christmas concert.

I don't think Stella stopped waving.

As all preschool concerts go, it was cute, funny and entertaining!

{ breakfast with santa }

In following traditions, we went to our third annual Breakfast with Santa put on by the Minneapolis Junior League. It's a low stress way to avoid crowds and visit Santa. Bonus that a stuffed animal and brunch comes with it!

Santa thought Oliver's tie was a little loose (he obviously doesn't understand the hipster look!) but took his time to visit with them. And if you are wondering what they asked for - motorcycles (both of them)!

Oliver clearly approved of the brunch!

But not of taking photos by the tree.

A little bribery can go a long way. However no amount of bribery has gotten him to wear this adorable tie since then!

{ turkey day }

We have so many things to be thankful for but top of the list: family!

We spent Thanksgiving day in Minneapolis and enjoyed a lovely dinner at Kyle and Elizabeth's house. then we loaded up and hit the road for a weekend at the Lodge. But not before hopping on the trainer to burn some turkey.

Saturday was the big Gopher/Badger border battle and while the Gophers led for much of the game and it was one of the best games between the two, they couldn't pull off the win.

Oliver and Stella much preferred sledding while others tailgated around the fire......or partying inside the warm house!

{ rob gets hitched }

Chop & I enjoyed a fun night out to celebrate Rob & Betsy's wedding day. Rob is one of the last of Chop's college friend to get married and it was a great reunion of friends that we see far too little of. The old crew was back together again!

It was a fun night and a good excuse to get out and do a little dancing (and drinking)!

{ activities }

Both Oliver and Stella are enjoying a few extracurricular activities each week. Stella is keeping up with her dance and gymnastics classes. We got to watch a class a few weeks ago and it was super cute (and even better because it was Halloween week so they were all in costumes!).

She is also loving gymnastics and after this current session, is getting bumped up to the "big" gym.

Oliver started hockey a few weeks ago and while we were a little nervous that he would be discouraged by how hard it is to learn to skate, he has been loving it! Going as far as asking each day if today is hockey day.

Chop has also been busy with hockey each Saturday and Sunday as he is officially coaching Oliver's Minneapolis Storm team.

He typically leaves hockey and looks like this on the way home as he is exhausted!

He has exponentially improved since he started a few weeks ago and it will be exciting to see him hopefully cruising around on the ice by the end of the year!

{ first snow }

Oh, if only I could match my excitement with Oliver and Stella's excitement about the first snow. They were up and eager to take a peek a few weeks ago when the white stuff arrived!

I actually wouldn't have minded it so much if it weren't for the frigid temperatures that have come along with the snow. Oliver did take interest in the tools for helping clear the snow but unfortunately that was short lived.

There is definitely no lack of interest in post outdoor play drinks though!

Lets hope we all survive what is beginning to look like a very long and cold winter!

{ seventy years }

This November my dad turned 70 years old! This is a pretty big birthday so I wanted to do something extra special for a gift. And rather than spending money, it involved his friends, family, past coworkers, etc. sharing memories/stories/notes about him. I sent out an email about 6 weeks before his birthday and asked everyone to email or mail me their messages. My goal was to get 70 but I wasn't sure how realistic that was. But low and behold, after a few weeks and another reminder email they started steadily flowing in. I was thrilled!

I took each of them and put them individually into old retro envelopes and numbered them from 1-70. On the tag it said "seventy years of memories".

We had a lovely family dinner with everyone at our house (hello beef short ribs!) and gave him his gift. He was very surprised and had a fun time reading through all of the letters!

{ boo! }

We had a fairly decisive year when it came to Halloween costumes. Stella went a really original route (heavy sarcasm) with her choice of being Elsa from Frozen.

Oliver went with a fairly standard boy costume and picked being a Ninja. Fairly certain it was based on the fact that he got to carry a sword.

We tried to maximize wear of the costumes - they got to wear them to school and to Kowalskis trick or treating.

On Halloween eve, we had our neighbors over for soup and fixed up hot chocolate and Baileys to take with us as we ventured out to trick or treat. It was a cold year but the kids lasted over an hour and came home with enough candy for a year!

{ school pics }

Is there anything cuter and more hilarious than preschool class pictures? Nope.