Merry Christmas 2019! Our Christmas day began with all the grandchildren lining up in size order before heading downstairs. Anders wasn't that thrilled about being forced to take a picture. Also, Talia will likely be in the back next year.
First order of business--Trix! Or in our case, Unicorn cereal.
Next it was straight into the throes of package opening. You can see Papa Kay is all ready to go with his trash bag.
While shopping for presents may stress me out, gift opening was delightful. Annika received everything off her gift list: an alicorn (that's a unicorn with wings), a toy lizard (actually a dozen)...
...and a dolphin costume. My, my! We're trading this one in for a larger size. Plus, we're recommending tights.
Anders got this amazing Melodihorn...
...while Eila got a beautiful violin.
Brooklyn and Talia were delighted to unwrap the newest illustrated Harry Potter (thanks, Alesia!)...
...while Eli was thrilled with his drone.
Jason dressed for Christmas in this classy new shirt from Lance...
...but liked his New York subway shirt so much that he swapped it out.
But wait, what about these gorgeously wrapped gifts? An assortment of these lovely packages also arrived from Cousin Alesia.
Hand-knitted hats! These thoughtful gifts were the highlight of Christmas. Alesia put so much thought into finding the perfect pattern to match each person's personality. She sure nailed it with Eli's BB-8.
Talia's bowtruckle from Fantastic Beasts might be my very favorite.
It's an awfully close call, though, with Annika's Light Fury.
Such a perfect match for her beloved stuffie, Chloe.
Eila's Cinderella hat was the perfect match for her Halloween costume.
While you can't see it from this picture, Brooklyn's hat features the Deathly Hallows. Potter Perfect.
Trucks for Anders, Central purple for NomiAnn, and cute color schemes for Callie and I. Truly, the most special gifts ever. Thank you ever so much, Alesia! We'll always remember our happy hat Christmas.
As Christmas day was balmy, we took a pause from opening presents to walk to the park.
Eli was delighted to fly his new drone.
I confess: pretty nifty.
No better place for tossing Brooklyn's new Captain America frisbee. I love Adam's Santa T-Rex suit jacket.
Skipping back to the frisbee theme, we discovered Omaha is home to the Disc Store. Brooklyn thought she'd died and gone to heaven.
Other adventures: The Children's Museum. You're looking sharp, Callie!
Fontenelle Forest. Nice tower, Eli!
Lake Zorinsky. Zoe's sure looking stylish!
Breakfast at Burger King with Papa Kay.
Lunch at Firehouse Subs.
And of course, the zoo. The place is jiving, right Eila?
NomiAnn and her gals. So happy to all be together!
The zoo was the perfect place to show off our hats. Look how nicely Talia's matches her coat.
In case you want to see some animals, Eila and Annie can show you the way.
Aw, red pandas!
Elephants.
And back to the coolest hats.
We had so much fun at the zoo that we came back on New Year's eve for their Noon Year's Eve celebration.
Most everyone walked away happy.
Except for Anders, that it. Poor guy fell and banged up his face. The scrape on his face is actually from an earlier incident. Two is tough.
That evening we gathered for our traditional New Years fondue.
Yummy!
Happy 2020! No better way to start the year than with a thoughtful package from the Vedeckis family. Thank you! We feel so spoiled and loved.
Naturally we tried to gather all the grands together for a photo. Anders didn't like it much at first.
Thank heavens for Callie's slapstick humor! She delighted them all with her silly antics behind the camera.
Our final adventure: Urban Air Trampoline Park on New Year's day. Between the high ropes course...
...the Ninja Warrior obstacles
...the climbing wall
...and the trampolines,
...we had a flippingly good time. (That's Callie going round.)
You could practically lose yourself in all the fun.
On behalf of our favorite canine niece, we hope everyone had a wonderfully merry Christmas and wish you the happiest New Year.
