Christmas Day

Christmas morning was relaxed.  No one was up at the crack of dawn begging for presents.  We all got up late and first had a breakfast of crepes, bacon, eggs, toast and grapes.  Then came the presents.

The official taste tester for Nana's crepes

Getting help from Big Sister

Dr. Pellegrino got a pink doctor kit.  Many check-ups were made clean bills of health were given to everyone .

Pink Legos

Pink Leap Pad.  Can we sense a theme with pink? This girl loves her some pink

Skyping Auntie Gina and showing her the new Leap Pad

Daddy got a bench grinder

That evening, we had my Grandpa and Uncle Pete come down for Christmas Dinner.  I had made my parents and grandpa and calendar with pictures of the girls and two wallet size pictures.  Grandpa was so proud of the calendar, he had to show my uncle his gift.  I was so happy that he enjoyed his gift.  That way he could see us more than just a few times a year.  He put those two pictures in his wallet right away, so he could show his friends his great-grandchildren from Wyoming.  

Cooking with Nana + Auntie

My parents were the hosts for my dad's side of the family get together or gathering.  With that came many hours in the kitchen for my mom and us, preparing food and goodies.  On this day, they were making caramel dipped marshmallows rolled in rice krispies.  

There were a lot of caramels to unwrap

 Another day, they made homemade Poppycock with peanuts.  It's a sticky popcorn treat. For this you need a lot of popcorn.  Katelyn was all to eager to help make the popcorn.

Helping Auntie Janesa with the butter

Grandpa keeping Megan happy. I think she was looking at Janesa barbecuing.

I know I ate may share of Poppycock.  It was good and something that we make only at Christmas.

Trimming the Tree

Since we weren't home for Christmas, we didn't have a tree of our own at home.  Nothing to clean up when we got back, which was nice, but I missed the lights when December did role around.  Since we didn't have a tree, Katelyn couldn't decorate one.  Oh what a surprise Katelyn had when we got to Nana and Papa's house.  They had left the decorations off so she could help them put them on.  What fun she had.

Papa the "Personal Ladder"

This is where the other part of the family  parked themselves for the decorating.

If it were up to K, the tree would have had every hanging ornament available hung at her height.  She was good if we moved them though, as long as she could do the moving.

Pellegrino Christmas & Bismarck

Our car was packed for a winter drive to Canada, but first we stopped in Billings to see Jason's parents and have Christmas with them.  His parents are about 2 hrs away and we thought that this would make our trip even shorter the next day, since we had a 2 hr head start.

Grandma Pellegrino had to wrap and bring out the presents.  No Peeking.

 Katelyn got some goodies for the drive, a penguin pillow pet that is a night light as well and some Crayola paper and markers.  I'm sorry, Megan but I don't remember what you got.

A new pretty pink bracelet.  This girl is all about pink.

Our friend's Adrian and Erin stopped by with their son, Simyon who likes to play with Katelyn, stopped by to say Merry Christmas and to tell us that they are going to be moving to Hawaii in the New Year for Adrian to work on a movie about the story of David.  Adrian is a stuntman in many big name movies and he's a fellow Canadian.  It's nice to have connections in warm places like that should the need for a trip ever arises.
We got up the next morning and left around 11am but didn't get out town till 11:30.  A little later than we wanted, but we were only driving to Bismarck, ND.  Only 6 hrs away.  Jason got us the Presidential Suite at a hotel for $100!

The total square footage was almost as big as our house!  It was pretty nice.

Our bathing Beauties sure enjoyed the pool and hot tub 

Even Jason thought it was pretty great, to go on vacation and get paid to swim.  First time in his life that has happened. 

Our girls are awesome travelers.  Can't say we had anything really happen.  Just keep them occupied and fed.  We couldn't even use the dvd player we borrowed and we still survived.  We just have great girls!

Cody Museum

The Christmas Season started December 1st for us.  The girls and I, along with our friends, Jon and Sheila Henson, made our way to the Cody Museum for the Annual Christmas Free Day.  Unfortunately, Jason had to work. They have different musical numbers going on throughout the day in different galleries, featuring school music classes and local groups.  Refreshments are served and they waive the entrance fee for everyone.  So it was a great time to go.  

 They just renovated the Buffalo Bill Gallery and many new features were added to make it more interactive. So, Megan got her first seat on a saddle.  Not like we don't have 2 in the garage that she couldn't sit  on but this was just more fun.  Can't you tell by my over zealous smile? :)  Katelyn, however, didn't want to join in on the "fun".

 Katelyn and her friend Micah, watching a video of how they took traveled into Yellowstone with Buffalo Bill.

 A replica of Buffalo Bill Cody's hunting camp.  There was even a copper tub for bathing! Try packing that on a horse to carry into the mountains.

Another interactive spot.  Lift the blocks under each building to see a picture and description of those buildings in the days of Cody's beginnings.

 And this was towards the end, when everyone was getting tired.  We did spend a couple of hours walking around

We capped the day off with some down time at Micah's house, pretending to fish together in their "boat"

I believe it was the weekend after Thanksgiving, we headed to Cody to take in the Lighted parade.  We took a short horse-drawn wagon ride, walked downtown and roasted a marshmallow along the street at the warm up barrels and tried to find snacks at different businesses to keep the kids happy until the parade.  Sorry, no pictures were taken.  I had a disgruntled 3 1/2 yr old who didn't want to keep her jacket zipped up against the very cold breeze.  Again, we did this with Sheila and her two kids.  Jon and Jason were working together on our house renovations.  I was glad to get out of the mess.

Backyard Camping

One very warm September day, I headed to Red Lodge with some friends and Megan while Daddy had his girl at home.  I had been telling Jason that he needed to set up the tent with Katelyn and sleep in the back yard since he's been gone during some of the summer and busy working long shifts.  This was the day to finally set it up.  So when I got home later that afternoon this is what I found.

 They were watching movies on the computer and relaxing, eating pretzels.

 Since we didn't go camping this summer, I suggested they spend the night outside.  They ventured out at night and slept until the early morning when they got cold and climbed into bed with me and Megan for a warm-up.
                                      

Making Apple Sauce

I was lucky to have someone I know call me up asking if I wanted some apples.  "Yes Please".  Since last year wasn't the year of the apple, this year promised to be a better crop.  It seems, or so I've heard that apple trees do better every other year.  This was the year for apples again.  With my faithful helper by my side in her Strawberry Shortcake night gown and helper number 2 perched on the freezer in my kitchen, in her bouncy chair, we peeled apples.

"Look mommy, C's."

 So after getting about 4 dutch ovens full and only burning the bottoms of two batches, we have apple sauce in the freezer.