It's the holiday season...

Every holiday season I am reminded how much I love spending time with our family, despite the crazy winter driving. This year we managed to avoid snow and ice covered roads, for the most part, and travel to Eldora, Davenport, and Cedar Rapids. We have seen most of our family and even some friends who live out state. We started our holiday journey at my parents house in Eldora. We arrived before a big snow storm and had the pleasure of spending two and half days snowed in at the Ellefson lodge :) I always love the snow covered trees that surround my parents house. It brings me back to my childhood and trudging around with my brother in our snow gear trying to find a decent hill to sled down... which was a process since every inch of land surrounding us is either completely tree covered or flat. Christmas Eve we had a lovely time joining my parents for a potluck dinner at church, followed by a late church service. It was so much fun seeing both my parents singing in the choir! They just added a new choir director and pianist to their church music family. They are both amazing musicians! I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the choir director sing Oh Holy Night. Wow! It is exciting to see all the changes that have taken place since I moved in 2003.


Our next stop was Davenport for Christmas day where we joined Ben's family for a LARGE celebration! It always amazes me that they can fit almost 30 people in his grandparents house! We did a white elephant gift exhange. What a success! It was great to see the hilarious stuff people came up with. I think this will be  something to try again next year. I know we have some treasures lying around at home that would be perfect! It was great to see Ben's family. They are such a joyous and fun group of people :) They remind me of my dad's family Christmas in Hampton, IA when I was a child. The house smelled of delicious baked goods and coffee :)


We headed to Cedar Rapids Christmas night. On our way there, a beautiful snow fell. I haven't seen snow flakes that big in a long time. When we arrived in Cedar Rapids I expected to go to bed. I guess that was not my mother-in-law's plan! She wanted to celebrate and open presents! We had a fun time sipping egg nog, listening to Christmas music, and exchanging presents. My in-laws always seem to choose the perfect items for us. I love to see the creative things they come up with.  We went to bed late with full bellies and smiles on our faces :)


I have to say that we had a relaxing and great Christams this year. It was wonderful to not be rushed around or stressed about weather. A big thank you to our loving and generous families for their welcoming arms and kind gifts. Merry Christmas to all and all a good night!


Here are a few photos of the beautiful snow covered trees in Ben's parents neighborhood and the pups pretending to be watch dogs.