Holiday Break: Week 2

 We survived the Christmas Blizzard of 2022!  Everyone in West Michigan had their Christmas plans altered as there was no way to drive in the intense wind, blowing snow, and ice covered roads.  It was kind of nice being stuck inside our warm house and just getting to relax.  We opened gifts from each other like we always do on Christmas Eve morning.  Church was cancelled for the weekend, which was so weird.  We don't think there's ever been a Christmas without church.  We did make it to Auntie's house and then over to Grandma and Grandpa's house on Christmas Eve ever so slowly.  We would have never even tried if they didn't live so close.  

These two didn't have ANY fun.  

Lottery tickets from Auntie!!   The kids favorite.  

Christmas morning was so nice, everyone was feeling great, until they weren't.  Around noon Laney went down hard with a stomach bug.  We cancelled our dinner with my family but we were so grateful we had made it through traveling and through most of Christmas with everyone staying healthy.  The better news was that she was feeling back to herself about 24 hours later and somehow (grapejuice, I swear by it), no one else got sick!  

Sledding with the Fricano's!  

We had to move our plans for our Brang Family Christmas around when Laney got sick, but it all worked out in the end!  On the 28th, Patrick took the girls and met Aunt Beth and Uncle Nader half way.  He dropped the girls off for a special sleepover with their cousins that they had been counting down the days for!

To say the girls had the BEST time is such an understatement.  They were spoiled rotten by Aunt Beth and Uncle Nader and they just love Eliana and Addie so much, they were in heaven.  Evie keeps asking when they can do it all again.  

Grandma and Grandpa treated us to a special lunch at Blondie's to start off our celebration!  

We had a special guest too, Uncle Bill!  And a bonus, he brought his MAGIC!  The kids were so into all his tricks! 

The next day we had plans to go to the Michigan State basketball game with the Gregors.  We had a special stop to make before that though.  We visited Great Grandma and Grandpa Schultz in Detroit.  We talked to the kids about it because they had been driving all over the state for several days and didn't know if they'd be up for it.  But all 3 kids were so excited and eager to see their Great Grandparents.  The kids built puzzles, played with legos, and Evie had fun with Great Grandma's jack-in-the-box!  

Carson and Laney taught Grandma how to play the game "Wordle" on her ipad.  We hadn't Great Grandma and Grandpa since the summer and it was honestly the nicest visit.  We don't usually get them all to ourselves.  Definitely a highlight of our Christmas!  

We love you Grandma and Grandpa Schultz!  

From Detroit we headed up to East Lansing...had to stop at Pizza House first!  

Patrick surprised the kids with some AWESOME row 5 seats.  We loved being right up with all the action!  We might not ever be able to go back to the nose bleeds :-) 

Laney and Evie got high fives from Malik Hall and Joey Houser at halftime. And BEST of all, Laney's dream came true and we all got on the Jumbotron....like 4 times.  Laney was head banging the whole time so she never really even saw.  But she's one happy girl.  Her friend from school actually saw her on the Jumbotron from somewhere else in the stadium and they texted Patrick.  

Happy New Year from downtown Ada!  We walked to Ada for some glow stick fun with the Gregor's and Fricano's.  

Here we come, 2023!