We had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas with family! We awoke early to a beautiful snow-covered Christmas morning. The kids had fun opening presents and playing with new toys. We had some breakfast and eventually made our way over to Grammy and Grandpa Brown's to celebrate with them as well as the Tieman crew. Don always has a nice fire going and we all caught up over coffee. We exchanged gifts and had a delicious dinner (Swedish meatballs of course!). Grandpa was a little under the weather, as were some of the Tieman crew (boo, sickness!), but we all did our best to enjoy the special day despite having folks not feeling well. The cousins always enjoy seeing each other - they played with toys, played games in the basement, did puzzles - and it's just nice to all get together. From there, we drove down to Brown County, IN to celebrate with the extended Reder family. Once again we stayed at Big Sky cabin, the same one we rent each year that fits us all so well. We spent time catching up with everyone, and enjoyed relaxation - jigsaw puzzles, coffee, reading books. The day after we arrive, we always do our Christmas gift exchange. The cousins open gifts in the afternoon, and the adults open in the evening after dinner. It's always fun to sit around together and see the surprises people find for one another! The kids had fun taking a dip in the hot tub outside, too. We are so thankful we can get such a big group of 16 together for the holiday! We made it back home to Chicago and got ready for the new year. We got together with a couple other families for New Year's Eve and had a wonderful time ringing in 2018! Cheers to a happy, healthy year ahead.
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| The stillness of Christmas morning... |
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| Beautiful sunrise |
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| After the fun! |
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| Cheerful kiddos |
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| We got Grammy a talking Star Wars porg, she loved it! |
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| Grandpa being silly in his Christmas hoodie |
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| Tyler is mesmerized by all of the moving ornaments |
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| Mary and Don helped me add to my Nutcracker collection! |
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| Christmas dinner |
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| All the Reder cousins |
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| Gavin really wanted a bean bag for Christmas! |
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| Brother-in-law shenanigans |
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| Cassidy showed Grandpa how to use her apple pen - he gave it a try! |
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| Playtime with sweet Ellie |
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| Another Christmas dinner! |
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| Hot tubbing |
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| New Year's Eve dinner with friends |
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| Silly kiddos up too late on NYE! And the poor girls are outnumbered! |
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| I love receiving Christmas cards from friends near and far. I keep them up for a few weeks since they make me happy. |
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| Happy New Year! Welcome 2018! |
