Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2012 was so great!  We all went to the live animal service at Bethany and Hana performed again.  It was outside and a little cold, but well worth it!  Hana sang with her choir, but was most interested in being an angel and seeing the animals.  There was even a camel!

Not the best photo, but funniest! 

That's my Hana!

After that (and Hana's nap, for us) we all went over to Leif and Ann's house.  As usual, we ate too much and had a wonderful, fun filled family evening.  Christmas Day we all went back (the Balk's stayed, of course) and had a slightly "lighter" menu of soups and things.  We invited a few of our friends to join us as well.  It's always so nice to spend time with family and friends.

The girls liked their purses.

Christmas Day.  I love this picture.

"Classic" Karla head-tilt shot! 

Santa!

Our visit with Santa last Saturday went much better this year than prior years.  Hana has been seeing him on TV and I suppose her friends at school have been talking about him as well.  We went up to Zoka's again and arrived early enough to see Santa's arrival on the North Fork Volunteer Fire Department's fire truck.  Hana was thrilled to see him arrive!!  She said she wanted "a present" this year and one time she said she'd like something purple.  Let's hope that Santa can deliver. 

I should mention that earlier in the day, we went to see Hana's first real "live" show.  It was the Sesame Street "Elmo's World" show.  She loved about the first 10-15 minutes of it and then was ready to leave.  Our friend's the Jorgensen's were also there with their son Ryker.  We all left at intermission and went to Red Robin for lunch.  It was a busy and fun day!

Sunday, Hana sang the cutest song in church.  I forgot to hit "record" and am sick about it!  Thursday is her Christmas Program - I will make sure to record that!!

After Church, we went to the Turner's house to meet baby Carli, who was born via a surrogate on December 1st.  She's a sweetie and very mellow, just like Hana at that age!  :-)

Tree Trimming

Well, I have no idea why it's called that, but we did that tonight.  We actually "decorated" our tree. Knute, who was hunting last weekend in Wisconsin brought home the cute tree from Lois & Larry Balk's tree farm in Pepin, Wisconsin.  Knute says it's actually John's brother Randy's land.... details!

Anyway, we had fun finding old ornaments that we like a few "new" ones that we forgot about!  Overall, I think the tree looks pretty good!  Also, Hana had fun "helping" and also putting together (many times) the get tree that her grandma and grandpa gave her last Christmas.