Dec Break Part 1

Wednesday - The day after Christmas was a grandmother/mother/daughter/doll day.

The four of us drove down to the American Girl store to shop their sales.

Lea was excited to get her hair done...

and have lunch at their bistro.

When we got home the dolls had a fashion show in their new duds.

Nico and Molly modeling their fancy clothes.

Lea and Molly modeling their new pajamas.  Rylee's dolls love pajamas as much as she does.  I'm pretty sure half their wardrobe is pjs, but we couldn't resist these S'mores and "Rio" pjs.

Thursday - Relaxing, laundry, crafts day.

Friday - Gaga and I took the kids to see Mary Poppins Returns.

Sat - Jace lost another tooth.  Honestly, I think he lost one before Christmas too - as did Rylee.  It's hard to keep track since both their teeth have been falling out left and right since Halloween.  I think the tooth fairy has made a total of 7 trips so far and both each have another wiggly one at present.  Jace has so few teeth that you can barely understand him when he talks, plus he looks like a hillbilly!  The doctor told him that it was no wonder he got the flu, he didn't have any teeth to keep the germs out!  Jace is very literal so he took that to heart and didn't want the last one to fall out!  

Jon pulled out the last tooth of Rylee's that was loose.  He basically begged if he could since he had yet to pull out a tooth.  He said it was ridiculous that he was a father of 2 and had never had the pleasure of pulling out a tooth.  No one has had the opportunity to pull out any of Jace's teeth.  He refuses to let you touch them and let's them get so wiggly that they eventually just fall right out of his mouth.  :)

But I digress.  That night Gaga and Papa babysat while Jon and I went to the Edward's annual ugly sweater party.

Sun - Pool day at the Froyd's followed by dinner and the Vikings game.  The game was abysmal as usual.  We've all decided to pick another team to cheer for next year.  We're thinking the Seahawks so I took one last pic of the kids in their vikings gear before we all have to buy new jerserys.  :)

Rylee's already covering her logo up - I totally understand!

Dec - Christmas Day

Rylee has to set an alarm for Christmas Day, otherwise she says she can't sleep at all - she just stays up watching the clock.  The plan was to get up at 7, but the kids know they can get up early if they hear us downstairs.  Rio decided to help them out and get up at 6:30.  As soon as the kids heard Jon turn off the alarm to let Rio out, they came down.  Santa Claus has been here!  Santa Claus has been here!

Revealing the presents!  

Jace asked for pajamas and legos.

Rylee's turn!

Rylee asked for a book and some holiday stuff for her American Girl dolls.

My parents came over for egg bake and puffy wuffy on my beautiful reindeer plates that Grandma Sandy bought for me years ago.  I love those dishes!  Afterward, we opened presents.

Here Jace is getting an ornament.  In the background, you can see the two signs my parents got.  I made the memories sign and was so proud of myself.  I distressed the wood, stained it, stenciled it, dry brushed it... and managed to keep it a secret until Christmas.

Then a week before Christmas, Jon tells me he made my parents a sign too.  Which is incredibly thoughtful and sweet sure, but he one up'd my sign!  I mean my parents were in tears when they opened his.  I gotta admit, it's awesome!  The picture doesn't even do it justice.  :)

Jace was all smiles here, but he wasn't feeling the best. 

 His fever returned that day.  He asked if he could finish opening his presents and then he went off and rested and put together his new legos.  Here he's giving me the thumbs up that he's okay (while the rest of us opened presents).

*Jon took him to the doctor the next morning, and they confirmed he did have the flu.  He got some antibiotics because it was starting to settle into his lungs.  He finally started feeling better for the second week of break.

It was a very Hogwarts Christmas.  We got 4 new Harry Potter/Fantastic Beasts games.  The kids each got new HP water cups.  Rylee got HP pajamas. Jace got a FB set for his lego dimensions video game.  They got HP ornaments.  Rylee got an HP cookbook.  Harry Potter now equals, if not possibly surpasses, my family's love for Star Wars (gasp!).  

Rylee got some makeup brushes from her cousin, Maddie.  

Jon liked them too!

She also got a box full of her own cooking supplies from Gaga.  She put them to use that day when she made us Christmas dinner: Mama Jo's spagetti - a Polich family favorite.

And that's, as they say, a wrap!  :)

Dec - Christmas Eve

The kids were pretty healthy for Christmas Eve.  Rylee seemed back to normal, maybe a little tired still.  Jace had a pretty wicked cough, but we were giving him his breathing treatments and he was super excited for the holiday.

My parents were celebrating with us so I made everyone pose for a picture (since getting pics of people other than my children is my weakness - New Year's Resolution!).

The kids opened a couple of presents early - like these new pajamas.  

Of course, they changed and wore them the rest of the day...

...even when we walked down to Ray and Jeanette's for a visit.

We had surf and turf for dinner that night: crab legs, lobster claws, and skirt steak.  Yum!  Rylee was in heaven.  Jace ate a hot dog.  (It's annoying, but he is so me when I was little that I can't help but understand.)

Before bed, the kids put out the carrots for the reindeer.

Jace added candy canes this year because his favorite new movie, The Christmas Chronicles, said they are a favorite reindeer treat!

They also left milk, cookies, and notes for Santa.

Rylee asked how old Santa was.  Jace asked how old Mrs. Claus was.  Lol!

Turns out she is hundreds of years younger than Santa.  

I hope that doesn't put Santa on the naughty list!  :)

Dec - Fun and Games

Fun was had at school and after.  First, Jace had field day (relay races and and such).  I stopped by to check it out, but didn't get to see any events.  But I did get to see him with his friend, Brooklyn.  :)

Then, we had our last day at the museum with Maddan and her family.

The dads even came.  It was Jon's first time seeing the museum.  He was impressed. 

Watching the kids lounging around in the light room.

After the kids played, we all went to Chick Fil-A.  

I think we stayed there for 2 hours, we were having so much fun.  

We are so sad that Maddan and her family moved.  We will miss them!

But December wasn't all fun and games.  Remember the vomit incident at the choir concert?  Well the morning after the above picture, Rylee woke up with 103 degree fever.  (As did Madden and Nico two of the other kids pictured in the choir post).  Rylee stayed in bed all that day and Sunday.  Luckily, Netflix dropped the new season of Fuller House so she had that to binge watch.

Jace's 103 fever started on Monday morning so both kids could be sick together.  Their fevers continued all that week so they both missed the last week of school before break.  Jace missed a field trip and his class party.  Rylee missed her field day and her class party.

Jon and I alternated taking days off work (Mon - Wed) and Gaga watched the kids on Thursday and Friday.  Luckily, it never spread to any of us adults.

One cute thing: Jace's class exchanged Christmas cards and Jace had taken the time to write a personal message in each card (I guess no one else did that).  His friends were so touched and they missed him so much, that his teacher let them make special cards for him.  He read them at home and it really brightened his day.  The messages were so heartfelt and cute!  We will treasure those forever!

Speaking of the cards Jace wrote.  Look what he wrote in Brooklyn's card:

It was so sweet (and funny) that I had to take a picture!