Christmas with the Hermans

This year we as a family decided to celebrate my families Christmas the weekend after New Years Eve. Last year we were home for New Years Eve. This year i kind of wanted to stick around home. Not that we did anything really but go to Johan and Julies for games. NYE really isn't that big of a deal anymore since i've gotten married and have had Easton. I'm even surprised i made it past midnight since normally I go to bed so early.

Jesse and I both took off Thursday and Friday so we could have a couple more days at home with my family and we were celebrating Brookes birthday and she really wanted all of us to go ice skating. We left DSM around 6 and had a pretty good drive home. Easton did very well in his car seat for the majority of the ride. He got fussy a little towards the end but that's too be expected since it's such a long car ride for him to be buckled in the whole time. We ended up getting to my parents house around 11 which wasn't that bad.

Recently my Grandpa (mom's dad) was moved to a nursing home. Thursday mid morning we all went and saw my grandpa. He seemed to be in pretty good spirits. Nursing homes always tend to give me the creeps since it's so gloomy and a little sad. Makes me never want to live in a nursing home. The boys had a good time playing with all the toys that they had in the lobby and I think it lifted my grandpas spirits to be able to see the boys and hold them. We took lots of pictures since really we don't know how  much longer my grandpa has on this earth. It was good to see him and spend some time with him.

Thursday afternoon (January 5) we all met up at the indoor skating rink to celebrate Brookes birthday. I don't think any of the girls had been ice skating since the last time we took them in DSM to the out door skating rink. Bridget and Olivia were a little skeptical at first. Luckily they had these metal push things that they could hold on to and kind of help guide them down the ice. Jesse of couse had to bring his own skates which is probably the smarter thing to do since public skates are literally disgusting and not the most comfortable to wear. Easton even had a good time skating. He loved going around the rink with Jesse. I wasn't the stableist on the ice so i didn't skate with him a whole bunch for fear of falling. Miley and Grady didn't really care for it at all. I think they felt unsafe. Dad, Mom, Michelle and Ben didn't even put skates on but still had a good time sliding with their tennis shoes occasionally. After about an hour we were all tuckered out. It takes a lot of energy to skate and I on the one hand am way out of shape. Skating led to some very hungry kids and adults so we decided to celebrate the rest of her birthday over at Pizza Hut. YUM!!!!

Since my dad is still working at the sale barn we decided to take a trip over to the sale barn Friday morning to watch the cow sale. Grady had a really good time. It was interesting to say the least. Didn't smell the greatest. The sale barn even has a thing where you can walk across the actual lot of all the cows. That was pretty neat but scary at the same time. I think the kids had a good time attending something they've never been to before..especially Grady. Pictures to come!

Friday night we celebrated our immediate families Christmas. We decided to have it at Michelles house. Michelle made a great dinner and had some yummy desserts. The kids had fun playing on the trampoline and were super excited about opening gifts. Easton still doesn't really know or get excited about opening presents but i'm sure that day will soon get here where he can't wait to open gifts. Us adults decided to not get each other presents since we basically have everything we want and it's rather difficult buying gifts for adults now a days. We all decided it would be a great idea to take a family trip (no kids) in the summer. The destination tunred out to be Branson. We have our hotel all arranged and we all have made arrangements for our kiddo's. Should be a good time especially since i get to go to my favorite jewelry store! Can't wait!
Opening gifts were fun for the kids and also the elephant gifts were also a good time. Everyone seemed to bring normal gifts this year. Overall the night turned out to be great family time together. I think everyone was exhausted by the time the night was over. Been an overall busy couple of days so far.

Christmas Dinner at Michelles

Easton loved the puppy

and the kitty..nice facial expression Jesse!

Grandpa was always trying to get him to laugh

New Toys

Come on Mom...open it already

Easton loved this little trampoline

Fashionable hats from Wanema

Sooo tired

All day Saturday we spent the day getting ready for the Extended Herman Christmas. Everyone was coming over to Mom's house to celebrate Christmas. There were lots of people and lots of food. I think the only ones that couldn't make it were Tawnya, Katrina and Mike and Robyn and their family. We still ended up having a great time caughting up and the 2nd cousins all playing together. At the end of the night played a rather fun game and found out things about family members we would of never known!

Over all our time at home for Christmas was a great one. We were able to get lots of quality family time in and seen family we haven't seen in over a year. We were all exhausted from such a busy weekend come Sunday. After church we all went out to Ruby Tuesdays and had lunch and then our family and Stephs family all got on the road. Poor Easton didn't have the greatest trip. Right in the middle of it he decides he doesn't feel good and throws up everywhere....felt so bad for him and the car just stunk like sour milk. Not sure why he wasn't feeling well. When we got back into des moines we all met up for dinner..no one really wanted to cook anything since we had been driving all day!