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We love when family comes to visit and it’s always fun when we see them at the holidays. Mike’s parents recently came to visit from Minnesota and we crammed a ton of stuff into their visit.

We started off with a trip into the city to see the windows, lights and of course the Rockefeller Tree. We even had a bonus as they brought our niece out so it was a lot of fun having her along. We had a unique dining experience at a Korean restaurant where we learned we don’t really know a lot about Korean food and yes we were those people who asked for only udon noodles for the kids. It was a comedy of errors for us and we were thankful they were patient with us and we enjoyed our meal.

The big fun was our Christmas party on Friday night. Our sister-in law Jessica was in town for work and my brother and Mike’s sister came up to visit as well. With 7 adults, 4 kids and 1 dog we were pretty full, but it’s so much fun to have everyone over. The kids were all in the same room and really enjoyed spending time together. Of course we couldn’t get them to sit still for a nice picture but we sure did try.

For our dinner we kept it simple and made a lasagna and salad. This is the way to go, because you can make it early and then just pop it in the over clean up and you get to enjoy yourself. After dinner the cleanup is minimal and if there are any leftovers they’ll taste yummy.

After dinner we did the Peppermint Pig and enjoyed listening to what everyone enjoyed and was appreciative for over the year. Then it was game time. We decided to play HeadBanz and had so much fun. This game had us laughing so much and really thinking outside of the box. I regret not taking a pic of us playing because looking at everyone with their headbanz on was so funny. A great group game to play if you’re looking for one, we played the adult, but they also have a kids version too.

Saturday started off with a huge breakfast and we were off to Home Depot for the kids workshop project. We loved introducing Ali to it and Eleanor is getting really good at using a hammer. These are awesome and it’s something we look forward to the 1^st Saturday of each month.

The Secret Shoppe at the local church was next. This is where kids get to shop for parents and little elves (girl scouts) help them. We’ve done this every year and it’s so much fun to see what the kids pick for us. I’ll be sure to share the reveal because it really is fun to see what they pick.

The Dicken’s Village is also happening in our town so the girls went to check it out and do a little shopping in Maplewood. The highlight for Eleanor was getting to touch one of Rudolph’s antlers and when the worker from the North Pole touched her nose it would glow red. It’s magical to her and made all of us smile.

Sunday was a day of good byes for some, but Mike and I also got to head to the Jets vs. Giants game. It was my first game and we had a great time. It was nice for us to reconnect and do something fun together.

We felt very blessed this weekend to have so many family in town to hang out with us and do fun things.

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