...and through the woods, to Grandmother's house we go!!!
We truly had a "vintage christmas" this year as we all headed back to my Grandma's house. All of my siblings and nieces and nephews were able to go as well making this a very special time!!
Because the size of our family has more than doubled since we were little kids, we are no longer able to sleep snuggly at Grandma's house and were fortunate enough to be able to stay at a cozy little hotel in town. It felt like we should be waking up to a mountain range out back and with the off and on snow fall throughout the weekend, it really felt like a Christmas in the old movies {for lack of a better description}.
There were too many places I wanted to stop along the way from our hotel to my grandma's house. I could take pictures of every old building in this town! To say I'm sentimental would be an understatement.
Although, this building holds no significance to my family. I just liked the green garage door.
"Little Bohemia" is a little bowling alley that we used to go to where there are only 4 lanes and you have to walk down into the tiny basement to pick your ball. Good times.
A few of us woke up extra early on Christmas morning {4:45am} to go to Julotta which is a morning Christmas service at church. It was a great way to start the day. Putting my focus on Jesus' birth as our Savior as the reason for Christmas. It was a really great service and really fun to go because my Grandma remembers going every Christmas with her family. They would wake up really early and go to church on their sleigh. She tells the story of listening to the jingle bells on the sleigh as they went to church and as they grew closer to church, they would hear more jingle bells from different directions letting her know that more sleighs were coming to worship at Julotta that morning. The picture below is a picture I took in the morning before going to Julotta.
On Christmas Day we all went over to a nearby farm for a horse drawn sleigh ride! It was beautiful and perfect. We even got to see some wild life! If you look closely in one of the following pictures, you'll see a white stag!
After our sleigh ride, we headed inside to their cozy lodge for hot chocolate! The lodge reminded me of the lodge on White Christmas [I know, another reference to an 'old movie'...}
After Christmas, we had a fabulous day outside in the snow! The cousins had fun sledding, four wheeler rides, and building snow forts! They all played so well together and had so much fun! My sis-in-law has more photo's on here blog here.
Of course you can't have a get together with the little cousins without some silliness...
Speaking of silliness, I don't know if you realize how hard it is to get a decent picture with 8 kids under the age of 7...
Case In...
Point..
Somewhere in between eating, catching up with family, sleigh rides, sledding, and playing with kids, we also made some delicious home made popcorn using ears of "popping" corn we picked this fall at an apple orchard. We told all of the little ones they were eating popcorn like Laura Ingalls did. It actually tasted pretty good too!
The cousins were able to help take the corn kernels off of the ears of corn. Here is a picture of Hans helping too!
We had such great Christmas celebrations this year! We were also able to celebrate with Tom's family as well and, unfortunately, forgot to bring my camera to the parties!
Merry Christmas everyone!!!
We truly had a "vintage christmas" this year as we all headed back to my Grandma's house. All of my siblings and nieces and nephews were able to go as well making this a very special time!!
Because the size of our family has more than doubled since we were little kids, we are no longer able to sleep snuggly at Grandma's house and were fortunate enough to be able to stay at a cozy little hotel in town. It felt like we should be waking up to a mountain range out back and with the off and on snow fall throughout the weekend, it really felt like a Christmas in the old movies {for lack of a better description}.
There were too many places I wanted to stop along the way from our hotel to my grandma's house. I could take pictures of every old building in this town! To say I'm sentimental would be an understatement.
Although, this building holds no significance to my family. I just liked the green garage door.
"Little Bohemia" is a little bowling alley that we used to go to where there are only 4 lanes and you have to walk down into the tiny basement to pick your ball. Good times.
A few of us woke up extra early on Christmas morning {4:45am} to go to Julotta which is a morning Christmas service at church. It was a great way to start the day. Putting my focus on Jesus' birth as our Savior as the reason for Christmas. It was a really great service and really fun to go because my Grandma remembers going every Christmas with her family. They would wake up really early and go to church on their sleigh. She tells the story of listening to the jingle bells on the sleigh as they went to church and as they grew closer to church, they would hear more jingle bells from different directions letting her know that more sleighs were coming to worship at Julotta that morning. The picture below is a picture I took in the morning before going to Julotta.
On Christmas Day we all went over to a nearby farm for a horse drawn sleigh ride! It was beautiful and perfect. We even got to see some wild life! If you look closely in one of the following pictures, you'll see a white stag!
After our sleigh ride, we headed inside to their cozy lodge for hot chocolate! The lodge reminded me of the lodge on White Christmas [I know, another reference to an 'old movie'...}
After Christmas, we had a fabulous day outside in the snow! The cousins had fun sledding, four wheeler rides, and building snow forts! They all played so well together and had so much fun! My sis-in-law has more photo's on here blog here.
Of course you can't have a get together with the little cousins without some silliness...
Speaking of silliness, I don't know if you realize how hard it is to get a decent picture with 8 kids under the age of 7...
Case In...
Point..
Somewhere in between eating, catching up with family, sleigh rides, sledding, and playing with kids, we also made some delicious home made popcorn using ears of "popping" corn we picked this fall at an apple orchard. We told all of the little ones they were eating popcorn like Laura Ingalls did. It actually tasted pretty good too!
The cousins were able to help take the corn kernels off of the ears of corn. Here is a picture of Hans helping too!
We had such great Christmas celebrations this year! We were also able to celebrate with Tom's family as well and, unfortunately, forgot to bring my camera to the parties!
Merry Christmas everyone!!!
Looks so fun! Reminds me when we went to my grandmas farm and had 17 cousins running around.... good old fashioned memories... love it!
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