Minnesota for the Holidays

(posted by John)

We just arrived back in Holland after a great three weeks spent in Minnesota to celebrate Christmas and the New Year.  Jen and the kids arrived on Dec. 18th and I followed on the 21st.  We spent Christmas Eve day with my Mom, sister Jenny and her husband Jon and our niece Andie.  Andie is 16 months old and certainly was the star of the show!



Matthew, Andie, Ryan & Allison

 Christmas Eve night was spent at my Uncle Scott's house with the rest of the Feriancek clan on my Dad's side of the family.  Plenty of baseball talk even though the season opener is still three months away (Go Twins!)

Merry Christmas!

We woke up at our house in Eden Prairie on Christmas morning and lo and behold Santa knew where to find us!  An iPod docking station and Star Wars Legos were the major items Santa delivered this year (and a new Twins hat for Dad!) 

After opening presents and playing with our new toys, we packed up our van and headed south to St. James to celebrate Christmas with Jen's family.  Everyone was able to be there and we had a great time.  Plenty of snow available to play outside (sledding, snowboarding, snowmobiling, etc.) as well as new games to play inside.  Even though there aren't many hills in St. James, we found a nice rivene that must have contained two feet of snow on the ground!  The kids and dads had a blast.  As always there was plenty of food (never and issue) and 'good cheer!'  We stayed in St. James for three days and two nights and had a very fun time as always!  A picture of all eleven cousins is below.



The 'St. James' cousins



In addition to all our Minnesota family and friends we were lucky enough to receive a visit from the Cheesemans, our friends that we first met in Philadelphia in 2001 and now live in Houston.  We have grown very close with Jen, Mike, Zach, Isabel and Grant over the past ten years and we look forward to every visit. 

Ryan, Zack, Allison, Grant, Matthew & Isabel

The last part of our trip was spent working (me), getting together with friends at various adult and kid parties, and ringing in the New Year at our cabin near Alexandria, MN.  More outdoor winter sports and indoor board games were played in the five days we spent at the cabin .  Jen's Mom and Dad (Jeanne & John) as well as her Aunt Joyce joined us for part of our cabin stay which was a great treat. 

Happy New Year!



Grandpa John and Ryan




Matthew on Snowshoes for the 1st time!



Thank you to everyone who made time to be with us during the busy Holiday season.  Believe it or not, we did a lot more and saw many more people than I was able to mention in the blog!  We had a great time and look forward to Spring in Europe and hopefully many visitors!  Marry Christmas and Happy New Year from Holland!

John