34 and Christmas!

It's Monday night right now (so I'm not yet 34...), and Dylan's waiting at MSP for those chilly Brauds to walk out into -10ºF MN for our Christmas week =). I'm watching the news to pass time, and the funniest thing just happened with Bee. My tummy rumbled, and that baby JUMPED! In the opposite direction from the rumble and really, very pointy ... aw, Bee got scared!

Aaaand now it's Tuesday, December 31st. Snap. Just like that it's all behind us. There are tons of interesting and/or entertaining details from an entire week of 7 people hanging out together, catching up, playing with a toddler, and celebrating Christmas, but mostly I'll just run down what we did, include some photos and perhaps an anecdote or two. 

Mom, Dad, Ginny, and Peter (aka Nana, Pappy, Tante Ni Ni, and Uncle Pi) arrived in Austin, MN at 1am in frigid temps, and everyone went to bed around 2 after a little wind-down chat.

Tuesday was already Christmas Eve, and we baked pumpkin & apple pies, wrapped pressies, and otherwise enjoyed a cozy, fireplace-filled, mulled-wine kind of day. We got all cleaned up for Mass at 6:30, and by the time we were leaving church, the snow really began to come down! It was such perfect timing. A few flurries had teased us earlier, but there was soon shovel-able snow. We got to indulge in singing "White Christmas" for real for once. We came home to enjoy our first meal together around our table. Here we are all spiffy:

Christmas Day proved to be quite white and full of relaxing, pressie-opening, playing with Paul and his things, and cooking. Mom cooked the turkey & gravy, Ginny covered the mac-n-cheese, Peter made delish cajun creamed spinach, I did the mashed & sweet potatoes, Dylan had done the pie crusts (the top of the apple was beautiful; full of Christmas trees!), and Dad had done the cranberry relish and egg nog. It was truly a family affair =).

P with the addition of the shining star & baby Jesus; big, ol' Bee enjoying the fire; Dylan's pretty pie

The 2nd day of Christmas, Boxing Day, is the traditional Braud-family bowling, but they had league bowling all night. What?! I flipped out, the others went to buy board games, and we played one or the other each naptime and evening after, ha. And we got to go bowling the next day - after Paul, Nana, and I went to his friend, Molly's, 2nd birthday party, a visit to the infamous SPAM Museum, and a beautifully scenic and delicious lunch at the Old Mill. Busy day! Dylan was busy somewhere in there with gorgeous mince pies that everyone loved. (I only love to look  at them but appreciate that he made them.)

Saturday took us out to the Hormel Nature Center for some snowshoeing and sledding. It was unseasonably warm at 35ºF, which worked out for the best since the next day dropped to a whopping -22! Crazy. Anyway, the mile-ish hike all together with snowshoes and Paul's sled in bright, sunshiney snow was just beautiful, and while our legs were ready to call it quits, I think everyone was a little sorry to leave. Everyone but Dad and me tried the sled out, so here are the best wipe-out shots:

 Because Peter didn't wipe out, he got to take the baby down with him =). Paul loved it.

Sunday brought us back to St. Augustine's for Mass - love singing Christmas carols in church - and then we had our last evening meal together for this trip. Between the good food, drinks, sweets, and overall taking-it-easy-ness, it was a beautiful and relaxing Christmas week together. Paul was bathed with attention, which he loooved, and he and I sure have missed everybody bustling around the house today! He's pointed to several reminders of each of the 4 of them, saying their names. Poor bébé doesn't get it ... but he's happy with the response that they got to go on a plane to Texas ;)

We neglected to take a "proper" 34 week bump shot, so here's the best we've got: