A Hogberg Christmas

On the morning of Christmas Day we headed out of Mora, stopped at home to check on the cat, and drove up to Bruno. Waiting for us there was Josh, Dave, Pam, Marilyn, Paul, and Gladys. We had lunch together and then began the gift opening so that Caleb could open his before his nap. He had fun opening up gifts, but mostly just playing with the toys. He was so fun to watch! Of course he was very spoiled by all his relatives since he's the only grandchild on both sides so far. Everyone loved their time with him, especially uncle Josh!

These two have definitely bonded lately - they have lots of fun playing together!

He almost blends in to the presents!

One tradition of Grandma Gladys' is to give everyone oranges on Christmas to remind us of how blessed we are. She remembers many Christmases when an orange was the only gift she received, and was very thankful for it! She always has a basket of very large oranges, but this year there was one cute little clementine for Caleb - so here he is with his orange and in his cute Christmas jammies.

We headed to Dave and Pam's house to go to bed late on the 25th. On the 26th we took Caleb to his 12 month checkup, only he didn't get any shots yet because he had a fever from his molars coming in. Later that evening we had Christmas with the immediate Hogberg family. The tradition is to have cornish hens for dinner, read the Christmas story, and then open gifts.

So Caleb decided he would read the Christmas story to us this year! Well, ok maybe not yet. But he did open to the right page! He again enjoyed opening gifts - he's had many opportunities to practice! We were again overcome with gratefulness for the generosity of our family. The best gift of the night in Joel's opinion (and mine too) was a snowblower! With all the snow already this year, we were really hoping to receive one! Joel was SO excited!

We headed home on Saturday the 27th after a wonderful week of celebrating with family. We are so blessed to have such great family who we love spending time with!

Christmas #1

On December 22nd, Joel, Caleb, and I celebrated Christmas together. We had a nice dinner together (Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo - we decided to do something different than what we'd be having the next several days!) by candlelight and then moved into the living room to give gifts to each other. Caleb did pretty well helping to open his gifts this time! It was such a joy to be able to give him some fun gifts. We also enjoyed opening gifts from each other. Joel's gifts were very thoughtful - he's so generous! It was a wonderful celebration together. It felt like the first one with Caleb since he slept through everything last year! Traditions don't seem that important yet this year, since he won't remember any of it, but we're beginning some anyway. The one that he didn't get in on this year was watching the Muppet Christmas Carol - we watched that after he went to bed. Maybe next year he'll enjoy it!

Merry Christmas Sweetheart!

On December 23rd, we traveled to Milaca to visit my grandparents on my dad's side. My mom, dad, and April were there that afternoon learning how to make lefse. We had dinner together and then all headed to a nursing home for a service my dad did. My mom and I sang "O Holy Night" and Joel played for us. It was a nice time to minister together during Christmas. Caleb brought lots of smiles to the residents!

I'll have to do a later post on Christmas Eve because I don't have enough good pictures to do it justice yet!

Happy (Belated) Birthday Caleb!!!

We didn't actually celebrate his birthday late, I'm just very behind on posting pictures! Here it is two days before our Christmas break is over, and I'm finally getting some time to blog. Anyway, on Dec. 20th we had a birthday party for Caleb. There was a pretty bad snowstorm that day, so plans changed and we ended up having the party in the afternoon, which worked out very well. Caleb's great-grandparents on my side were not able to make it because of the weather, but everyone else braved the storm, for which we are so grateful!

Here is the star of the show - he loves being the center of attention! Any time there is activity going on, he's a very happy guy!

We had some toddler-friendly finger foods for a light lunch. We relaxed in the living room while we ate, so Caleb joined us in his high chair.

From left to right: Great-Aunt Marilyn, Great-Grandma Gladys, Grandpa Bruce, Grandma Pam, Grandpa Dave, Grandma Lori.

Dad, Great-Uncle Paul, Auntie April.

So Caleb didn't really understand how to open his own gifts, but once they were open, he was excited! This little lawn mower was the favorite of the day.

We had a fire-fighter theme, and he thought he was so cool in his hat!

Here he was playing peek-a-boo through the farm window with Marilyn.

And the cupcake festivities begin! Notice the little firefighters on the cupcakes!

Daddy helped me blow out my candle!

He dug right in and stuffed in handfuls! He was in awe as he hasn't had many sweets up until this point!

Are you sure you want me to have this?

This chocolate is wonderful!

It was a very fun day to celebrate one year with Caleb. We feel so blessed to have spent this year watching him grow and develop. What an amazing God we have! The beauty of his creation is so evident in children. Watching Caleb begin as a tiny helpless infant and grow into a toddling, babbling little boy has been amazing. We love you so much Caleb!

Christmas Decorating

We put the tree up a little later than usual this year because I was a little nervous that we would spend all our time trying to distract Caleb from pulling the ornaments off!  We also got a cat this summer and I wasn't sure if she would also be a problem.  But actually it has gone quite well.  We didn't put the ornaments on the bottom of the tree, so Caleb is leaving it alone.  We catch the cat batting at ribbons on the presents once in a while, but it's not as bad as I thought it might be!

He doesn't sit still for more than one second these days!

Such a big helper!

He was very intrigued by the beads!

First Snow!

So this isn't the first time Caleb has seen snow, but the first time he got to play in it!  Last Sunday afternoon we took Caleb out for a few minutes while it was actually a decent temperature to see what he thought of the snow.  He was interested, but not able to walk very well because the snow was up to his knees and his snowsuit was awkward to walk in.  He sat down and brought a handful to his mouth, and then made a sour face because it was so cold!  It was fun, and we're looking forward to more playing this winter - and it looks like we're not going to be short on snow at all!!!

I have lots of catching up to do with pictures, but I'm having some trouble with blogger, so it looks like I'll be posting a couple pictures at a time.

Big shoes to fill!

My mom brought this shirt up with her yesterday - I wore it when I was little!

I haven't written in a while, and I keep putting it off because I haven't had any great pictures to post.  So we'll skip the pictures for now, but I'll get some up soon.

Last weekend Joel and I were planning on spending Saturday Christmas shopping while Caleb spent the day with Grandma and Grandpa Hogberg.  On Thursday we decided that we needed some time as a couple, so we dropped Caleb off Friday night and stayed at the Country Inn in Roseville.  The weather wasn't great for driving Friday night, but it was fun to watch the snow, listen to Christmas music, and discuss what gifts we were going to buy for family members.  We stopped at Tanger Outlet Center on our way down - I can't resist Carter's!  It's so dangerous!  Fortunately I was able to stay only with the 60-70% off racks, and I found many great things for Caleb!  It's always fun to shop for him!  We had a nice relaxing evening at the hotel (after we turned the heat on anyway - it was about 50 degrees in there when we got in our room!).  

Saturday we slept in a little - it was great to not get up with Caleb at 6 or 7 - and had a yummy breakfast.  Then it was a flurry of shopping all day long.  We stopped for a little snack at Arby's and then kept shopping.  We pretty much got everything done!  It was crazy, but a great opportunity to shop without Caleb - he gets too bored spending too much time in a cart!  Then we got to attend Christmas at Northwestern.  What a privilege to listen to the Christmas story and worship with such polished ensembles!  It was a great performance and I enjoyed the focus of the night.  We picked up Caleb afterwards and got home very late, but it was worth it.

Sunday was very busy as well.  After church we had potluck and then our annual Ukraine auction to raise money for food and heat for our sister church.  It is always a fun time as the creativity of our congregation really shines.  People bring in many wood projects, baked goods, and hand-made blanket and quilts just to name a few.  I will have to post later a picture of a fun little chair we bought for Caleb.  Oh, and Joel was the auctioneer!  He did a great job and everyone had lots of fun!  Then we went home for a couple hours, had a quick supper, and went right back to church for our Fireproof Bible Study.  The weekend was full of very fun things, but we were exhausted at the end!  

So there's a window into our lives.  I'll be sure to post some pictures soon.  We're looking forward to just one more week before Christmas break begins!!!