Life with the Rusch's: Christmas ( at least the first 3...)

I had to work night shift on Christmas eve and Christmas day so it worked best for us for Santa to come one day early. We asked him and he agreed. the kids actually both slept in til almost 8 that day! that never happens. Eleanor was first to wake up and she organized the presents in to piles until Ben woke up and then it was on! The kids favorite gifts from santa were Thomas ramps and a few trains for each. Mommy is pretty thrilled with her new snow shoes and some new duds.

on Christmas day, while mommy slept, Seth took the kids to his grandparents place for the traditional celebration with his mom's side of the family. then they came home in time to spend a few hours with me before I had to go back to work.

Then, on Saturday, we had a wonderful day to celebrate with Seth's parents and his sister's family! we had brunch and then presents and then we all got outside for sledding and snow forts and snow shoeing. it was a gorgeous day for it and everyone had a blast! then eating lunch and game time and make your own pizzas for the kids and then wii and then exhaustion and meltdowns and time to go home.

today was supposed to be celebrations with my mom's side of the family but it got postponed due to the weather and chance of winds and whiteouts so we stayed home and put away the Christmas tree and cleaned and organized toys and did laundry and so forth.

Next weekend will be one day with my dad and one day with my mom's family and that should finish it up.

another thing that happened in the middle of it is not quite as happy news... we had gotten an email from our bank saying we had used our cards at target during the time when credit card info was compromised so they would be sending us new cards but we could still use ours, then on the 26th we decided to book the vacation we have been planning ( a trip for seth and I to key west, florida for a few days, hoping to go at the end of the month) a notice popped up and said there was a problem with our card and we couldn't book it. we just assumed it was because it was a large purchase and the new cards were on the way and so forth. but the next day I checked the banks website and there was a pending transaction to Delta for flights to Chicago for $1500. so I called the bank and sure enough, someone else had accessed our account! we should get all of our money back but it will be tied up for a little while while we dispute it. so we are holding off on booking our vacation for a few days and hopefully we will still be able to get decent flights and hotels for the days we are hoping to go.

and now for the pictures...