Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone!  We had several wonderful Christmas celebrations, starting with mass at St. Mike's, followed by a delicious meal and cozy Christmas Eve evening at Aunt Pea's, Christmas morning at home, and Christmas Day festivities, gifts and brunch back at Aunt Pea's.  And then there was the Zehnacker extended family party, as well as and a nice meal and celebration with Grandpa Tom and Sharon a couple days later.  Christmas with kids who are a little bit older has a different feel than it used to when they were really little, but it was still so much fun with fewer meltdowns.  All of these gatherings remind us how lucky we are to have so much family around to celebrate with!  

Thawing out their toes after an outdoor barefoot run in the snow.  Crazy!

Christmas morning at home

Playing the part of an old man in his robe with a (FAKE) cigarette

Brunch!

Our favorite gift from Grandpa!

Looking like a true middle schooler with all his new Christmas gear

Nana Mil's blessing carries on! 

Evie danced at the family party!  She did great!

Bingo winner!  Yay!

Guzowski Family Christmas - quite a gift pile!

A very cool basketball player ornament for our basketball player!

Go Steelers!

Grandpa Tom can somehow squish all the paper down into an unimaginably small bag at the end.  It amazes me every year!

We were glad to have a white Christmas this year, despite some rainy days before Christmas!  The beautiful snow lasted through Christmas, and then we had the most unfortunate freezing rain/ice storm that coated everything in ice.  Our outdoor activities were limited after that, because it was soooo slippery outside and the snow was crusty.  However, we enjoyed some lazy days to sleep in, spend time with friends, cook some new foods, and rest up.  Everyone was fighting a bit of a cold, so the slower pace was welcome.

Beautiful snow!

So much ice! YUCK!

Evie and her friend did some studying and then made homemade pasta!

Noah and Simon hung out several times.  We loved that they were accidentally twinning in their EMS shirts!

Noah got a new iPad for Christmas, and then he got a kit to build his own bluetooth speaker!  

New Year's was pretty quiet around here with some appetizers and games, but we all made it to midnight!  We started the new year off with our favorite breakfast treat of Ebelskivers (filled pancakes) and then dinner with friends on New Year's Day.

New Year's Eve twins!

Chocolate fondue

Ebelskivers

New Year's Day twins! (Time for Matt to wash his shirt?!  Ha ha!)

The other big excitement over break was that we got a new fridge!  (We're really feeling like adults now!)  Thankfully our old fridge was still running, but we decided to jump on a Black Friday deal to upgrade.  The delivery date was December 30th, which was also the day of the ice storm, and when the fridge arrived, it didn't quite fit in our existing space!  It could have been a moment of panic, but Matt took on the project of trimming the surrounding cabinets to squeeze it in.  He did a great job, and now that the new fridge is happily in its new home, we are loving it so much!

Basketball season is continuing on for Noah, and January is going to be a busy month with 3-4 games per week!  Meanwhile, Evie is busy preparing for midterm exams next week.  Back to reality for all of us!