Christmas 2014

We had a wonderful Christmas vacation in Minnesota! Wow, we really enjoyed it! It was so nice to see family and friends, to get away from home and really relax and to just enjoy each other.  It was just what we needed and gave us lots of lasting memories.

The traveling to and from went really well once we finally got on our way.  Luckily we had scheduled in extra time at the Billund Airport, as we could not check in online from home like usual, due to Benjamin needing an infant ticket.  After many phone calls to Delta we were told to just show up at the airport and pick up his ticket at the office.  Well...not so easy. There wasn't a ticket on record and neither myself or the Billund representatives could get ahold of the Delta office to issue Benjamin a ticket.  Just at the last minute, the Billund agent got through and we were able to get our ticket, but it looked like we might have been in a jam.  Then in Amsterdam, I lost my plane ticket, realizing it while in line for the interview to get onto the plane to MSP.  Luckily that was no problem.  We made it and had a nice nights rest.

The next few days were relaxing while we just hung out and finished our Christmas shopping.  On Christmas eve we went to my Uncle Mike + and Aunt Maggie's house. Silas were the only small children with, so they were totally spoiled.  They got lots of different present and that kept them busy the whole night.  Benjamin was only up until around 7:30 but in the small amount of time he made some new friends, opened up some presents, ate a small amount of food and smiled to lots of new people.

The night consisted of a lot of catching up with relatives and a bit of goofiness.  One of the boys' presents was a Whistle game where each whistle sang a different tone.  Uncle Mike conducted us my cousins and I (and Grandma) played a few different songs alternating tones.  It was very funny and quite difficult.  I loved just being silly with my family!  Silas also got a hot wheels car and a track which both he and my younger, yet adult, cousins played with a lot.  He also got some magnets from Grandma and those were a hit with both young and young at heart souls.

Dinner included appetizers around 5pm and then around 8pm we ate ham roast sandwiches and mandarin salad.  Around 9pm it was time to play the famous "dice game".  Everyone brought at 20-25 dollar item to contribute to the game.  However, in my opinion, not all of the items are as desirable.  The game goes on for 30 minutes with rolling the dice, trying to get doubles, and trying to trade for the "best" gift.  Lets just say it wasn't a big success for the Madsen family, but Silas had a lot of fun watching!

On Christmas day we went to Church with my Mom.  Afterwards my brother came over and we opened presents.  It was fun to get to spend the morning with them.  Around lunch time we went to my Dad and Liz's house.  My Aunt Ellen + family as well as Aunt Anne were there as well.  The boys had fallen asleep in the car so we let Silas take a nap in the car while we ate lunch.  We really enjoyed some adult time eating and catching up.  We also opened presents and had a lot of fun watching the boy's reactions.  After a little while we went outside and went skating.  It was so much fun to teach Silas on Johnny's skates he had as a kid.  Silas got pretty good at it in the end.  We ended up staying for dinner and went back to my Moms where we were staying for the week.

The days following Christmas were also so much fun.  We ended up getting a bunch of snow on the 26th, so we had fun sledding and just running around in the snow.  It was quite cold (well below freezing) but we stayed bundled up.  Benjamin however did not like the cold weather or snow...probably because within the first minute of being outside he face planted into the snow....brrr.

We visited good friends, went shopping, had a few mini dates and in general just enjoyed being on vacation.  The time went much to fast and before we knew it, it was New Years Eve.  We spent the day at Julie and Josh's house before heading to Dan and Tara's for dinner.  It was a low key evening and we made it back to my Mom's just in time to give each other a good night kiss at midnight.  The following day we flew back to Denmark!  We are so grateful for the opportunity and all the blessed time spent together as a family.

Wow, a train under the tree!

Macy's Santaland---a fun way to wait to see Santa

My first Christmas!

Great Grandma Adrienne

The Whistling "Game"

Boys will always be boys!

Our 10th Christmas together!

Christmas Morning

Got them finished just in time!

Vikings Game at the Gopher Stadium

Ruthie and Benjamin

Alexander and Silas

Farewell lunch at Benihana (they make the food right in front of you, Japanese style

Benjamin 11 months

We have a very active boy....stand up.....fall down...crawl around...stand up.....scoot around the table...fall down...crawl over to table again and stand up....etc, etc, etc...all day long.  1 week before his 11 month birthday he started pulling himself up to a standing position.  He would stand up at the coffee table at my Mom's house the most.  A few weeks later, he is pulling himself up onto almost anything.  Drawers in the kitchen, the couch, tables, beds, chairs and even people! You can just see the joy on his face when he climbs up and stands there!

Another fun development we have noticed in Benjamin is his "conversation". It is still only DA DA DA words he uses, but the inflection in his voice changes and it seems like he is trying to tell you something.  He will hold out a toy to you and say DA DA DA in a way that seems like he is trying to tell you something about the toy.  It is really fun to see his different expressions.  One of his favorite things to do is slam arms and hands down on the table and say DA DA. If you do it first he will copy you and do it even bigger.  He also imitates noises, faces and head movements.  He has this special move that I like to call the "head banger." He will just throw his head around and make happy noises.
We are still struggling with Benjamin at night...most nights.  During a typical night he is awake from 1-1½ hours.  Prior to his learning how to stand up, he would often be awake crying, or talking.  But now he wants to practice his standing during the night.  He will stand up, throw his pacifier across the room and then start whining.  We lay him down again and he repeats the same show over and over again.  I think last night I counted around 30 times before I stopped counting.  Eventually he falls asleep on his own, so that gives us hope.  On the other hand Benjamin is not waking up at 5am anymore...now he can sleep until 7 or even later.  So that is also nice (Also because Silas is sleeping later too!)

Otherwise Benjamin continues to be his happy and smiley self. He still loves to pose and smile for the camera, crawl around and play with toys.  His favorites seem to be Silas' toys....Silas' firetruck, cars, magnets...whatever Silas is playing with.  Benjamin has begun to start putting pieces in boxes and he can spend a long time putting them in and dumping them out again.  In the kitchen he loves taking magnets off the refrigerator and getting into the Tupperware drawer.

Mealtimes have been easier and Benjamin has a great appetite.  He likes to hold his own spoon when we are feeding him oatmeal and he tells us when he is done eating by dropping all the food off of the table!

Benjamin wears size 80 clothes and weighs...well I don't know, I'll have to weigh him soon!

The many attempts at the month photo with "friend"