Christmas in Wisconsin

What a whirlwind of a two weeks, with jet lag and all the celebrations, the time seemed to just fly by. It was great to spend time with family though!
The flights went surprisingly well, and were, dare I say, better than the flight in business class when we moved to Singapore. They both slept about 8 hours on the way to the US, and 8-10 on the way back to Singapore. Emmeline can now sit through a whole movie and was happy to watch tv for most of her awake time. Lounges saved us for some extra food and running space. Two of our planes were Hello Kitty planes, which was pretty exciting for Emmeline. Jet lag, however, turned out to be pretty brutal. One of the four of us (usually multiple) was up sometime between 2-5am every night for the first 5+ nights. Corabelle seemed to handle it the best going to the US, but coming back she took longer than anyone else to adjust. Thankfully, coming back to Singapore only took about 3 days to adjust, and the mornings weren't quite as early!

 

 

 

Of course, Christmas was celebrated with everyone. We ended up with lots of Christmas celebrations this year: in Illinois, with both families, extended families, etc. The girls enjoyed opening up lots of presents every day (which made for LOTS of suitcases on the way home) and getting spoiled with all the attention. :)

 

 

Christmas Eve at church was a highlight again, this time is was Corabelle who was entranced by the candles, and we got to have matching dresses for the first time! Dad's not a fan, but mom is!

 

 

Emmeline is old enough now to be really excited about Santa, so it was fun to see her prepare the milk and cookies and leave out the reindeer food we made on Christmas Eve. She was so excited that she woke up extra early Christmas morning (or maybe it was jet lag, who knows). When people ask her what she got for Christmas, she still chooses to say a squirt gun from Santa over her "bigger" presents!

 

We were hoping there would be a bit more snow while we were in Wisconsin, but sadly the most we got was a dusting one of the first days back. Emmeline enjoyed shoveling the snow with Grandpa, but eventually she figured out shoveling it back onto the driveway was more fun! Although she never got to build her snowman, she did go for a four wheeler ride with Dad and grandpa in the woods and quite enjoyed that!

  

  

Emmeline also got to try out bowling for the first time, and she loved it! They make some pretty helpful contraptions now to help little kids out, and of course, Emmeline being Emmeline still had to carry the 8 pound ball all by herself and lift it up to the ramp all by herself!

 

In addition to Christmas celebrations, Emmeline and Corabelle got to play with cousin Arianna who came in to celebrate Dan and Jackie's 40th anniversary (another post on that). Emmeline especially loved playing with Arianna, building block towers and playing kitchen together.

 

Of course, lots of time was spent just hanging out with both sets of grandparents. Emmeline got a haircut, and we celebrated Nick's birthday. Emmeline loved hiding in a giant box as a present to Daddy when we returned home from our night away (dinner and a movie in Point...no pics to show!)