Christmas

Our Christmas Eve service at church became the church's Christmas program, since the snow cancelled it the week before. So the Chancel Choir sang, which included my parents, my handbell choir, Bellissimo!, played, and Meredith's beginner bells also got to perform for the first time.

Christmas morning came bright and early, despite the kids staying up past 11pm! We had a nice family morning and then were joined by my parents and my brother and sister-in-law for the afternoon and evening. I guess I would call this a video game year; the majority of the gifts were Leapster games (for Jason), Nintendo DS games (for Meredith and Jeremy), and Wii games (for the family). But there were a few other things as well.

new hats for the boys

a new nightgown for Meredith, made by Grandma

police officer dress up for Jason

playing the Wii with Uncle Kurt

The Big December Snow

December 19 brought a prediction of 4-8 inches of snow. Brendan, being from Minnesota, said he'd believe it when he saw it. Well, by the time the snow stopped sometime Sunday morning, we had around 14 inches of snow! Nice! The kids and Brendan spent a good part of the day outside playing, or in Brendan's case, shoveling. We went over to school to do some sledding in the morning.

Jeremy chose to roll down the hill instead of using the sled.

We really enjoyed the snow storm, but it sure did wreak havoc with our plans. Our church Christmas Concert was scheduled for Sunday the 20th, but all services were cancelled that day. The kids were supposed to have two more days of school on the 21st and 22nd before their Christmas break, but schools were closed both days. Of course, they weren't disappointed, except they missed their class holiday parties.

Meredith's Heritage Project

For her third grade December project, Meredith had to research a bit of family history and share her heritage and a tradition with her class. She learned about my great-grandparents, Carl and Martine Larsen and my grandfather, Crist Mikkelsen, and how they emigrated to America from Denmark. She also talked about our traditional Danish Christmas dessert of rice pudding. We hide one almond in one bowl of rice pudding; whoever finds the almond wins the mandel prize, traditionally something chocolate. Meredith wore my mother's Danish folk dance costume to give her presentation. She also invited Grandma to come to her class to help teach her classmates how to make the traditional interwoven heart basket decorations.

Christmas Preparations

Decorating the Christmas tree

Setting up the Christmas tree train

Making Christmas cookies

Women In the Church Holiday Reflections

Thanksgiving

Pictures from our Thanksgiving day with my parents:

Jeremy and Jason playing with toy trains

Jeremy, Jason and Grandad playing with Grandad's model trains

Brendan taking a nap after working all day Meredith and Grandma making mashed potatoes

The beautiful table the lovely turkey Dad carving that lovely turkey

Grandma and Meredith

Girls On The Run 5K

Meredith joined an after school program called Girls On The Run this fall. Girls on the Run is a life-changing learning program for girls in grades 3-8th. The program combines training for a 5K (3.1 mile) running event with healthy living education. The program instills self-esteem and strong values through health education, life skills development, mentoring relationships and physical training - all of which are accomplished through an active collaboration with girls and their parents, schools, volunteers, staff and the community.

This is the team from North Star Elementary School.

Brendan was Meredith's running buddy.

Here they are approaching the finish line. They finished in about 40 minutes!

Meredith Turns 9!

We had a low-key celebration of Meredith's birthday with the family and Grandma and Grandad. She asked Daddy to cook stuffed shells and green beans for her birthday dinner, and he made her a pink daisy cake.

Halloween

We had a visit from my cousin Lani on Halloween. We haven't seen her since our cousin Heather's wedding over six years ago, so it was really fun to catch up with her. She's going to school in Washington DC now, so hopefully we'll see more of her.
Jason was sick that night, so he slept through all the fun. Lani went trick or treating for him; she even wore the mask from his Darth Vader costume. Jeremy chose to be a soldier, for the 3rd year in a row. Meredith was a cheerleader, wearing an old costume my mom made for my sister and had kept in the attic.

A couple of days after Halloween Jason was feeling better, so he put on his costume for a picture. We'll save the costume for next year.

Lani sent this picture of the family (minus Mom and Jason) with my Family Circle Jack-o-lantern cake.

Brendan Turns 40!

It was the big 4-0 for Brendan this year. He chose a strawberry shortcake. Here he is getting a little help blowing out all those candles!
Meredith made (with Grandma's help) Brendan a Vikings blanket for those cold evenings this winter.

Jeremy made (with Grandad's help) a box for Brendan to empty his pocket into.

And Jason picked out a new M&M's dispenser for Daddy's collection.

Jason Turns 4!

We celebrated Jason's birthday a few days late, but he still enjoyed pickup truck cakes and pizza dinner. I can't believe my baby is four years old already!

September - the lost month

As many of you know, I have Crohn's Disease, an inflammatory bowel disease, which is just as "icky" as it sounds. I've been on some great drugs that were keeping things in control, but just before we left for Minnesota in August, my symptoms started getting worse. I just tried to push through, but by the beginning of September, I was in so much pain, I could barely function. My family convinced me to go to the ER on the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. I ended up being admitted to the hospital, where I stayed for six days, trying to get the pain under control. I missed Jason's family birthday party at XBOS (a family fun center) while I was in the ER. I missed his actual birthday, too. Even once I came home from the hospital, I was pretty out of it for weeks, hence my title, the lost month. We have a great church family that really stepped in and helped with meals and taking the kids to and from the bus stop. That was the blessing in all this. I am now on some new drugs, hoping they will keep the symptoms under control, so I can put off surgery for a while.

End of Summer

After we got back from Minnesota, we were busy, busy, getting ready for school. We had dentist appointments, school supply shopping (which meant going to multiple stores since I waited until the last minute), meet the teacher event. Somehow it all got done, and Meredith and Jeremy started school on August 31st. Meredith is now a 3rd grader, and Jeremy is a 2nd grader.

August in Minnesota

Every other year we go to Minnesota to visit Brendan's family, spending a week together in Ely. This year we started out our vacation (after 2 days of driving) at the Byrne Elk Farm. Brendan's parents have a great place for kids to play and run. Even though it rained for most of the 2 days we were there, the kids spent most of it outside, running around the elk fields, trying out Brendan's old skateboard and riding on the driveway in the surrey with the fringe on top.After 2 days at the farm, we drove 6 hours north to Ely, where we met up with Brendan's two sisters and brother and their families and his parents at the Garden Lake Resort. We spent a week fishing, swimming in the lake, playing games, basically just hanging out together. Meredith caught the first fish of the week! Here's Meredith with cousin Maddy and the fish!There were 8 kids, ages 3-12. The younger ones had a treasure hunt every day. One day the 2 older girls put on a carnival for the younger kids, with face painting, tattoos, watermelon eating contest and boat rides. Meredith wrote a play for the other kids to act out. They really had a lot of fun. Here's Jeremy and Jason with cousin Helen after a boat ride following a clue.One day, Mindee and Beth (Brendan's sisters) and I went out with a fishing guide. Such a fun, relaxing day. We caught about 10 fish, including my first fish ever! We even stopped on shore for lunch cooked by our guide; he fried up some of the fish we caught in the morning with some potatoes. Delicious!So here's the whole Byrne family: top row: Jim and Eileen Byrne, the parents
next row: Dave Hutchinson, me
next row: Shea Byrne, Beth Hutchinson, Maddy Hutchinson, Jason, Brendan
next row:Bethany Byrne, Alaina Hutchinson, friend Paige, Jeremy, Meredith
at the bottom: the Antons - Dave, Mindee, Helen, Charlie

Grandkids Camp

The kids spent one week in July at "Grandkids Camp." My parents kept all three of them for 5 days and 5 nights, which were filled with all sorts of activities. Jeremy made a quilt.

They each made a string art project and a name plaque, using hammers and nails, and drills.
They each took a turn planning, shopping for, and preparing a meal. There was time for riding scooters, playing ladderball in the backyard and making giant bubbles. They went to a concert in the park. There was even a field trip to the Science Factory in Lancaster, PA. The kids had a great time. Brendan and I enjoyed our evenings alone. Needless to say, Grandma and Grandad were exhausted at the end of the week.