Sikorski Saga

 The girls sprinkled the reindeer food on the front lawn at Grammy and Granddaddy's so Santa could find us here.  Luella sprinkled food all the way to our minivan on the street. Here's a video of the girls sprinkling reindeer food.  The girls put out six cookies for Santa. Thank you to Maren and her Grandma Gail Grunnet for making the cookies!  Kyla asked Kati how many cookies Santa was going to eat. She looked shocked! Here is the finished birthday cake decorated for Jesus' birthday party!

Kyla made her first gluten free cake. It turned out flatter than we are used to eating. Kyla got to use her cake decorating class skills to bake the cake and dirty ice it for decorating later.

Tim and Kyla's dad Dan went on a guided goose hunt today for Dan's Christmas present. The guys got to spend time being guys, going to Cabella's for hunting licenses and always checking out new guns. Tim thought about getting a little pink rifle for the girls, but the sites were broken, so he decided against it today.   The hunt was fun for the guys to have guy time. They shivered in duck blinds in Rochester, Minnesota all morning. They had their firing lane, which the geese never made to their lane. A few geese did make it into the group's firing lane and some other hunters got to fire off a few rounds and got two geese. The game warden checked paperwork and didn't count Tim's duck stamps from Virginia, nor the stamps he got at Cabella's the night before. So Tim had to run into town to get a new set of stamps and got a fine for incorrect paperwork, or some such nonsense. When it was time to leave for the day, the hunters who shot the geese left without ta...

 Kyla and the girls drove up to the Mall of America in Bloomington, MN to spend the day with the Grunnets. Kyla's sister, Kirsten spent most of the day on the phone with her job. Maren shows how we all felt about that phone.  The girls waited somewhat patiently to see Santa.  The cousins all got to talk with Santa! Anna asked for a dolly. Kati asked for a baby doll. Luella asked for an American Girl doll and a pony. Isaac asked for a Kindle. Maren asked for an iPad and Santa told her he owned a TOY factory. She revised it to an iPod.  This Santa is quite funny and makes the girls laugh belly laughs!  Pictures with Santa!  Kyla's brother Kevin and her nephew Isaac tried the height picture. Looks like Isaac is gaining on Uncle Kevin.  We went to IKEA for lunch. Luella had fun with her straw!  Kati had to have a hot dog that was not sold in the cafeteria, so Kyla had to go downstairs to the Market Place Cafe' to get her a ...

 We drove up to Eagan, Minnesota to visit with Kyla's college roommate Jeni Mullenix and her family, Samuel, Nico and Oliver! They moved from Madrid, Spain to Minnesota in September. The kids were in constant motion so it was challenging to get pictures in focus!  Oliver and Kati gave each other hugs.  Especially when Oliver shared his snacks with Kati!  We had to do the height picture. Luella is 2 weeks older than Nico. This picture makes them look very close height-wise. Kyla thinks our next trip to Minnesota Nico will be obviously taller than Luella.  We gave the boys Moon Dough. Samuel helped Oliver open his present.  Nico opened his present.  And gave immediate hugs!  Jeni made homemade ice cream for us!  Luella had her favorite mint chocolate chip!  Nico and Luella loved their ice cream!  Oliver liked picking the chocolate chips out of his ice cream.  Kati thought her strawberry ice crea...

 We finally arrived in Minnesota for Christmas break! We were slightly disappointed to see that this patch of snow in the shade was all that Minnesota had to offer us. We got to Faribault in time to take Luella and Kyla to the Emergency Room (since there is no urgent care clinic in town). Luella was diagnosed with an ear infection. Kyla was diagnosed with a cough, which might be (and probably was) a viral sinus infection. Both were painful to travel with and they were happy to finally get medication to help them feel better. (Side note, it took until April 2012 to get the billing for this trip straightened out.)

We started our long drive out to Minnesota for Christmas break today! Tim and Kyla felt good in Indiana, so we decided to push it and drive around Chicago to avoid rush hour traffic in the morning. We got to our hotel in Elgin just before midnight.