Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Minnesota Cronks!  We had a very low key Christmas this year, given all the illness our children were fighting off all month, but we were very blessed to enjoy time together and celebrate the birth of baby Jesus!

Our elf enjoyed the festivities leading up to Christmas in style!  Sarah made a little bed out of a tissue box and construction paper.  She even wrote him a little note and attached it to the bed.  So cute!

On Christmas Eve, we got dressed in our nice clothes and headed to Christmas Eve Mass, followed by a nice dinner out at a restaurant.  Getting a photo of all 3 kids before heading to Church was a definite challenge!

My goofball Trevor!  It is hard to get him to give me a nice smile lately!

After Mass, we went out to dinner and the kids had fun watching the NORAD Santa Tracker on Daddy's phone. 

Then we went home, got the kids ready for bed in their matching Christmas jammies, and put out some cookies for Santa!

 Christmas morning, the kids were up and excited to go downstairs to see what Santa brought them!

 Austin was so excited, he tripped running into the room!

Sarah and Trevor followed closely behind, with Trevor hitching up his (too big) jammie pants that were falling down.

Stockings!

Sarah made a beautiful block nativity set at Kindergarten this year.

(Mommy got a lot of our family's volunteer hours done by cutting out the felt for these, but unfortunately pinched one of the nerves on a finger and made it go numb...for the last 3 months!)

We had some french toast (made by Mommy, but recipe by Gramma) for breakfast, then moved on to opening gifts under the tree.  Santa's gifts were up first. 

All 3 kids got board games from Santa and we have all enjoyed playing them this week!

Then on to the gifts from Mommy and Daddy.  Trevor got all of the Paw Patrol friends with their vehicles and was very excited about it!

Sarah got a lot of stamping and art supplies and a new dance outfit.

Austin got a real (kid sized) guitar with accessories and a book to start learning how to play.

Uncle Kevin and Auntie Keng sent a cool microscope with slides to look at and a fun book that explains all sorts of things in simple language for kids.

Nanny set to work getting Trevor's Paw Patrol Control Tower put together and all the characters out of their packaging.

Trevor was very excited about his Paw Patrol underwear!

(We still haven't convinced him to go on the potty so he can wear the underpants.)

Austin got a Notre Dame basketball jersey and wore it most of the rest of the day.

Trevor got a beanbag chair like his brother and sister's and had fun jumping on it.

The board games came out!

Unfortunately, our battle with illness going through the house did not leave Christmas untouched.  Sarah finally was fever free on Christmas Eve after having fever for 6 days.  On the afternoon of Christmas Day, Trevor spiked a 103 degree fever.  It was while our family was already on the way over for Christmas dinner and they stopped in briefly and headed out quickly so as not to catch the crud running through our house.  We ended up with LOTS of leftover food!  After a dose of ibuprofen, he perked right up, but we just ended up having a mellow evening at home.

The kids opened more gifts that Jenna, Michael, Alexis and Trish dropped off for them and were very excited about them!

Then it was off to sleep.  Trevor had a rough night and he and I spent the night with doses of ibuprofen and his albuterol neb while watching the snow fall.

Trevor had a fever for another 2 days, then we had about a day before Austin started having a sore throat, and soon thereafter, a fever.  Ugh!  We just can't stop getting sick for the past month!

Happily, both Mommy and Daddy had the week between Christmas and New Years off, so we were able to just lay low, recuperate, and enjoy many pajama days at home playing with new toys from Christmas.

My little scientists.

Trevor is showing quite the interest and skill with his new puzzles.

We managed to get a day with everyone feeling well and made it to the Children's Theatre Company production of Wizard of Oz on New Years Eve.  It was a fun show and we all enjoyed it!

Life starts back up again on Sunday with swimming and soccer, then school and back to work on Monday.  We are hoping for a healthier start to 2016 than the end of 2015!