Merry Christmas!

I can't believe that another Christmas has come and gone. Where has the time gone. Now, tomorrow is New Year's Eve and before we know it, it will be 2009. I remember growing up listening to the song 1999 by Prince. I remember thinking how cool it would be on New Year's Eve 1999...now, that was 10 years ago. I remember being in school and time taking forever and now one day I woke up and I graduated 17 years ago. This school year is almost half over and it seems that it just begun. How can we get time to slow down a little?

Anyway, our Christmas was great this year...as it always is. We spent it in Thief River. The kids and I went up on Monday to beat the weather. Unfortunately Bob had to work both Wednesday and Friday so he was there less than 24 hours...not much time for a 10 hour round trip. But we were very glad he made the trek. Jeremy, Shari and Evie came on Tuesday and we were all there until Sunday. Suddenly my mom and dad's house didn't seem so big with five adults and five kids there all of the time. The kids had so much fun playing with Evie. She is getting so big and turning into a little girl.



This year we decided to start a few new Hulteen Christmas traditions. The first was new pj's under the tree for the kids to wear on Christmas Eve. They all looked so cute and never even got dressed on Christmas Day. The other new tradition that we started is to take the kids sledding. Now, anyone who has been to Thief River knows that it's not the most hilly place, but there is one hill that is great for sledding. The kids had a blast...well, the jury is still out on what Evie thought, but I'm sure by next year she'll love it. It was a beautiful day, but if it would have been a little colder I'd have been ok. You sure do get warm pulling the girls back up in the hill on their sleds. We are taking them sledding again tomorrow for New Year's Eve.





Jeremy and Shari decided to use the time up there to take some pictures. They hauled a bunch of their photo equipment up there and set up a studio in the shop. They took some amazing pictures and I can't wait to get my hands on them.

Sunday the kids and I headed home. Northern MN was inbetween some winter storms and since I didn't think Bob would appreciate me staying until the thaw in the spring, we headed home. There is a little bit of Grandpa John in my dad and they followed us to Perham just to make sure that the roads weren't too icey.

New Year's Eve we're getting together with some friends to bring in the new year. Then on New Year's Day we will be celebrating Christmas with the Rivers' family.

We hope everyone had a blessed Christmas and looking forward to an amazing New Year!