Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning

Christmas Eve after lunch we headed to Cloquet.  Once we got there the kiddos played and ran around with Stella.  I don’t know if Stella was more excited to see us or if we were more excited to see her.  After we got our wiggles out we had dinner and then had to go outside to see if we could hear Santa's sleigh.  Mike has really fond memories of his uncle’s tricking the kids every Christmas and using jingle bells to start the Christmas Eve excitement.  Lets just say that the kiddos were still a bit too young to really understand what this meant.  It was a nice comical relief for us adults though, as we tried to get them excited.  They were more excited about all the snow and playing in it.  Once we got inside we decorated cookies for Santa.  It ended up being a few quick treats for the kiddos too as they kept sneaking frosting, cookies, and sprinkles.  We also remembered to leave carrots outside for the reindeer.  Somehow Mitch beat us to Cloquet and brought the kiddos some special Christmas jammies.  I then took my turn trying to get the perfect shot, while the peanut gallery commented on.  After I was convinced that one of the 20 pictures I took would “work out” the kiddos were released for bedtime.While Stella slept, Santa snuck in and left the presents and stuffed the stockings.  He was very thankful for Amazon Prime’s free shipping and Elf Nancy’s help in wrapping.  It made Christmas away from home much easier!Christmas morning the kiddos woke up and the first work out of Elin’s mouth was “Santa?”  We all got upstairs and the kiddos dove right into their task of opening presents.  They then played, we had breakfast and Grandpa and Thomas plowed the driveway.  Then it was time to head to Fargo for the Shoman Christmas at my Grandma’s house.