The Bracken's: 2011

Monday, December 5, 2011

Canadian Pacific Holiday Train

The Canadian Pacific Holiday Train visits over 130 communities in eight states and six provinces. The Holiday Train stops at different towns and helps raise money and food for local food banks.

What an awesome thing! I had never heard of it until my friend invited us to go. It was coming through Rochester at 2 in the afternoon. Other than freezing... it was so much fun. The train pulled up and all of a sudden we heard Christmas music and out walks Santa and then a live band starts a little concert. So fun!

Sunday, December 4, 2011

Happy 1st Birthday Natalya

We celebrated Natalya's 1st birthday in the afternoon by having a few friends over for lunch, birthday cake and ice cream. It was sad not being able to be amongst family but our friends made it extra special by coming to Talya's party. I debated whether or not to have a party because she is only 1 and won't remember anything but it is the thought that counts and she had so much fun playing with all of the kids and especially eating the cake! What a treat!

Streamers, balloons, and party hats. The kids had lots of fun!

Say Cheese!

Talya got a girlie flower cake for her birthday. It turned out pretty cute and was easier to make than I was expecting.

She was not quite sure what to think about this thing in front of her.

Tasted it... and Oh Yeah! Now she's happy.

Even Happier!

The happiest a 1 year old could ever be!

The final outcome.

She did a pretty good number on the bday cake.

Following cake and ice cream, she opened a few birthday presents. This is her sitting on her new discovery table that we got her. So far she is loving it! Thanks to everyone who helped make this a special day for Natalya. We had lots of fun.

Reminiscing over the past year...

We love you Natalya!

Let the Christmas Season Begin

I guess you could say we actually started decorating for Christmas a month ago and it was a smart thing to do! We put up our outside Christmas lights in early November before the weather got really cold. There ended up being some really nice days after that but its always better to be safe than sorry. I put all our inside Christmas decorations up the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Everything was done and all we had left to do was get a tree. Colten did a little research and in Minnesota there are no Christmas tree permits. It is illegal to go cut down your own Christmas tree. There are a few tree farms that let you cut you tree but you can't just go out in the woods, pick a tree and cut it.

So, that left us with a couple of options.
#1 Buy a fake tree. NEGATIVE.
#2 Go to a tree lot and buy a real tree.

We picked option #2. We went to this tree lot that was like what you see in the movies, all romantic with white Christmas lights all around.

But we found ourselves shying away because of the price. Our medical school budget was telling us we didn't have the money to buy a real tree at this price.

So we still wanted option #2, and our next best choice was to shop around, which we did and we later found ourselves at the Home Depot!

I think these two were pretty happy about our tree choice.

Thank you Home Depot. We love our Christmas Tree!

We also found ourselves enjoying the holiday by going downtown and watching the lighting of the city tree, taking a carriage ride, and listening to some live holiday music.

And lastly, some pictures of our little house all decorated with outside Christmas lights. We are 1 of 4 people on our street of about 48 homes that even have lights up outside.

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was different for us this year, and not necessarily a bad different, in fact it was really fun. It was different because for the first time, (in my life and with the exception of Colten’s mission, his life too) we spent the holiday away from our families. We were blessed to be in the company of some really great friends which helped being away from family more bearable. We started the day off with a little turkey bowl. Colten played and had a blast while Natalya and I watched the game from the parking lot. It was pretty chilly so after a while we sat in the car to watch the game. I don’t know if we made Colten proud or embarrassed him because we were the only “fans” there watching the game. I guess all the other women were too occupied making Thanksgiving dinner or something.

Later that afternoon, we went to dinner at the Nikolaus’ home. There were 6 couples and 11 children under the age of 5 and it wasn’t as crazy as I thought it was going to be. In fact the day was very pleasant and all of the kids played and had a great time. The most chaotic part of the day is when all of us women got the newspaper aids out and spread all over the floor to look at all of the sales for our black Friday shopping escapade. (This was my first time participating in the black Friday shopping experience. I mostly wanted to go just to see what it was like. I’m not sure if I will do it next year or not. I still haven’t decided. I do think that it is more fun when you have something specific that you are looking for. I didn’t really have anything particular that I needed, but I did come away with a toy for Natalya and some boots. We started the evening at 9 p.m. and got home at 2 a.m.)

Overall, Thanksgiving was a great and much needed relaxing holiday weekend.