Christmas in St. Cloud

We attended the annual Benson Family Christmas in St. Cloud on Tuesday evening, with all the Benson that were able to come, including Great Grandma Elsie. It seems that I forgot to take pictures, oops!, except for this one of the cousins. When Joel and Grant found out they would get to see Lincoln and Jayna on this night, they were so excited they started singing a son that went... "Jayna, Jayna, Jayna, and Liii-iii-coln". They LOVE their cousins:)

Unexpected Fun

It is times like these that catch me off guard... just when I am ready to put these two to bed because it's been a long day and the fighting is a max, the unexpected happens and they are happily playing with a box and hotwheel cars for an hour.

Christmas in Hibbing

 We spend a long Christmas weekend in Hibbing this year and it was wonderful to be surrounded by family for the weekend. Mike and Jenn, and Kelly were there and we always love our quality time with them. The boys (and all of us) missed their big brother, who spent the weekend in WI, but they ADORE being at Nana and Papa's "Hibbing House", so they were excited about everything. They got just a FEW gifts up in Hibbing and Santa was good to them as well.

The kids opened gifts on Saturday afternoon before church and we all waited until after dinner and church later that evening to exchange gifts.

Ice Skating was an adventure Saturday morning and it went about 100 times better than last year when Joel tried. It was Grant's first time and he did pretty well considering. They both want to go again soon so it must have been a success.

 

A little out of order here, but we spent Christmas afternoon with my Grandparents at the Real Life community room where we have our big meals. My grandma prepared a wonderful meal.



Mike and Jenn received their tree skirt handmade by Grandma.

All the Great-Grandkids were there!

My cousins son, Jestin below... what a cutie, and playing Hex Bug Battlebridge with Jaelynn (my cousin's daughter)

... and Don't Break the Ice with Uncle Mike

Grandma Mary Ann and her "sock tree" for all the handmade socks.

The boys each got a new leapster explorer game from Aunt Kelly, and those were a hit.

Grant, Christmas morning, finding a Star Wars shirt and Joel, just excited about the tiny marshmellows in his hot chocolate:)

More Battle Bridge and ANGRY BIRDS on Jeff's phone!! (Joel's favorite)

Cookies out for Santa, check... hang up socks, check!

Above, do you think my mom liked her cookie jar that Kelly had made for her!?!



Quality time with Grandma Rose:) We are so blessed to have so many grandparents  that we are still making memories with, and I am excited that the boys are now old enough that they remember the great grandparents each time we get to see them. They remember them and love to be with them and talk about them when we are back in Buffalo. It is wonderful and we are so blessed.

Preschool Christmas Programs

The boys were all business on stage last week at their preschool programs. I think there may have been a little singing, but definitely NO smiling during the programs:)

Grant, and his best buddy, Grady (middle), and Preston, before the program.

Pre-Christmas Fun and Traditions

From graham cracker houses to making sugar cookies to wrapping many presents on their own, it feels like we truly made the most of the holiday season this year. With all that our kids receive at Christmas,we thought it was a good idea to spend a little more time teaching them about the giving part of Christmas this year... We brought them shopping to pick out a gift for everyone in our immediate family and had them wrap those gifs, as well as the gifts to gmas and gpas, and teachers. We went through many rolls of scotch tape but it was worth it to keep them involved in the process of giving gifts. We continued one of my favorite traditions of making cookies and delivering them to friends. Joel and Grant each picked about five friends and delivered the cookies we made themselves. They had alot of fun with it.

Cookie making:)

Um... Grant must have thought he was going to lick the knife...:)

We gave the boys all of Mitchell's imaginext castle stuff this Christmas, that we had been keeping carefully hidden for the last few years.

Jeff, with all his "toys". Yep, he is defnitely a nerd... and proud of it:)

Jeff got me a charm bracelet, which was a nice surprise. So far, it has a camera and coffee cup charm and several beads. I love it:)

Grant, with one of the knights from the Imaginext set.

Joel seriously spent 30 minutes assembling a Bey Blade in the middle of opening presents. He was not going to move on to his next gift until this thing was put together.

Jeff, opening the cards the boys picked out for him.

Mitch and his cards...

Joel, opening the "Hot Wheels Wall Track" which was his most frequently wished for gift this Christmas.

Grant got his very own Bey Blade.

Opening all of Mitch's Imaginext stuff

Best self-timed family portrait. Ever. Period. Even Billy is looking at the camera!

Go Huskies

2 tickets to 3 Huskie games this year = one game for Mitch, one for Joel, and one for Grant. Grant and I saw the Muppets movie a couple weeks ago when Joel watched the Huskies, but I didn't get a picture of us. Kudos to Jeff for having someone take a picture! Joel LOVES his new hat and Grant is axiously waiting for this Friday night to get his hat:) I am thinking this will become a tradition of Huskie hockey games.

Santa in Buffalo

Joel asked Santa for a "Wall Race Track" and Grants request... a "Bumble-bee Robot".