Schwalm Christmas 2023
Tag Archives: Schwalm
Thanksgiving 2023 is over…
Thanksgiving Day 2023
Friends of ours—Scott and Wendy—also joined us this year as she was visiting from Seattle and they didn’t have other plans! She loves Thanksgiving and cooking so she brought most of the sides to go with Tom’s smoked turkey and smoked ham!
Thanksgiving tip? Gravy in an insulated pitcher! Pourable plus it stays warm!
The evening was spent watching football, playing cards, puzzling, and visiting!
Pre-Thanksgiving 2023
Everyone was coming for Thanksgiving again this year! So Day 1 dinner prep—smoked ribs—started early!
Our first hosted Thanksgiving dinner!
I was so busy with a houseful of guests and dinner prep that I barely had time to look at my phone (so most of these are from everyone else)! But it was so worth it to have everyone together — from Georgia (Filipek), Michigan (Schwalm & Coe), and Illinois (Schwalm & Hudson). And our best friends joined us, too…and fit right in!
Then we did some reenactment shots!
I can’t believe it was 22 years between these photos. But we all still look the same, right?! Also: no kids in 2000, six kids in 2022!
Let the family festivities begin!
We excitedly volunteered to host the Schwalm side family thanksgiving this year—Filipeks usually host in Atlanta but they’ve recently downsized and didn’t have room. We had plenty of room for everyone (most even stayed with us—kicking the kids out of their rooms of course)!
Everyone had varied arrival times, but by Wednesday afternoon everyone was here! It makes my heart so happy to see my kids having fun with their cousins.
Dinner for 21 is served! Charcuterie that takes up our entire kitchen island!
Gabby is now an Eagle!
We all traveled to Normal for our neice Gabby’s Eagle Scout promotion! But first, dropping Olive at the sitter’s!
And then lunch, because we were at a Mexican restaurant!
The fam, Christmas 2021
Almost the whole gang—Filipeks couldn’t make it.
A Katie French Braid
She conned Aunt Marie into putting her hair in a French Braid.
Thanksgiving 2021
All of the googly eyes make this delicious appetizer tablescape perfect.
Cousins!
And a throwback:
Gabby’s Graduation!
Gramma and Grandpa were headed to Gabby’s graduation party on Moccasin Lake in the U.P. (near Munising) so it was a perfect time to make the transfer. They got to spend the day with their cousins and had a great time!
Owen’s first raft ride behind a Jet Ski!
Waiting patiently.
First time in a hotel with them. We were tired enough, we all slept!I guess 7:15 wasn’t too bad.
Tom and I had both taken Tylenol PM so we were both zonked in the morning when the kids came in together at 7:15 with a loud MERRY CHRISTMAS and hopped in bed with us! We always leave their phones outside their doors so they can let us sleep longer but apparently 30 minutes was all they could handle!
I must be slacking on my old age because I didn’t take any pictures! But they started with their stockings and were thrilled to find a ton of Lego Minifigure packs so they started building those right away! Before we knew it, this is what the room looked like (and I think this is after one mid-opening cleaning).
Santa brought the kids a few things they asked for so they were thrilled—Owen got a game for his computer (he was super sneaky and actually installed it on the computer!) and some video game cash and Katie got some dolls she asked for.
Katie was proud of her wrapping job. And she knows me…it was a stemless wineglass that said BEST MOM EVER.
Then we video chatted with both sets of grandparents AND had a zoom call with the Schwalmlettes. (We might have been a little unprepared since we were thinking it was noon our time. But it was noon Eastern. I am never going to get used to being CST.)
Thanksgiving Zoom!
We just finished a 2 1/2 hour Zoomfest with the whole Schwalmlette and Schmittlette family! We visited and played a few trivia games
…and took our family photo.
Tubing with the fam!
We all went tubing today at Hanson Hills!! I had never done it before but I am all about NOT having to walk up the hill!! I hadn’t been inside the building in probably 25 years…plus they’ve totally updated it…so how can it still smell exactly the same?!
Tubing was so much fun…but everyone else in Grayling had the same idea and there were too many people (IMO) so we only got three runs in! It only took about 10 minutes max to ride up and go down but they’re were so many people we were waiting 15 minutes in line. (The tow rope also broke for about 15 minutes—THANKS, MARIE!—so that didn’t help.)
Katie only went down twice—she got too freaked out that she was going to come out of the tube. I could actually understand—you really got going fast and I was initially a bit freaked out. I went down once with Owen, once with Tom, and then the last trip with Tom, Owen, Doug, and Robert!
Thanks to Gramma Jean for taking pics with my phone!!
A Tom and Doug project.
As usual, we decided on a tech project halfway through our stay… Mom and David got a new TV! Which meant Tom had to pick it up in Traverse City (which was fine because he was headed that way to spend the day with Rob) and then get it all set up and hooked to the surround sound. Doug was tapped to help. The old TV went downstairs and that even older TV went to the the garage to be given away!
Gabby got a visitor on her new heated blanket.
Craziness with cousins!
Vacation house, Day 3
Random pics aplenty!
Cousin Gabby made some gorgeous flower crowns.
Kathryn and Izzy tried some lipstick!
Filipeks made an awesome taco bar for lunch and ice cream bar for dessert!!
We spent the afternoon chatting on the deck and then dinner was delicious cheesy shrimp and grits!
And then the annual pics!
Cousins!
The kids, then and now.
Aunt Marie put together an amazing escape room/box for the kids. They had a blast!
Then there was card playing and video games.
Vacation house, Day 2
We were sleeping in an awesomely dark and quiet basement room so combined with a late bedtime, we all slept in! I was up at 7:30 (technically 6:30 CST) and just waited for either kid to wake up. Owen finally got up about 8:30! I stayed in bed to enjoy the quiet and when I finally came upstairs, this is where I found Owen.
And I decided to have a fully relaxing no makeup day.
The kids spent most of their day in and out of the pool. Spending time with Uncle Jim was super fun and they even had a cannonball contest!
While the kids were (still) in the pool I got some work done. Not a bad view.
The kids were finally out of the pool and playing hide and seek while we were getting dinner ready. Uncle Marcus and Uncle Jim we trying to confuse Katie as she counted.
The birthday kids!
And tonight was a campfire and sparkler night!
And it was a momentous night—Katie actually asked to go to bed!!!
Vacation house, we are in you.
The kids really wanted to get in the pool the minute we got to the house but I was a mean mom and made them look through the house first and then actually put their suitcases in a bedroom and not just leave them splayed open in the middle of the living room.
Watching intently as I opened the pool cover.
It’s like this pool house knew I was coming.
They might already be in the pool and I might have bought them an inflatable unicorn. 🦄💦
Ahhhhh.
We had a bit of time before everyone else got here. It was quite a steep journey to the water and fire pit.
Dinner tonight was shish kebabs from the Coes. They were delicious!
Schwalms and Hudsons
The cousins had so much fun together and we really enjoyed visiting with the adults!!We really need to do this more often!!
These woods are for the birds!!
Uncle Doug and Aunt Marie took all the kids to Hartwick Pines and the kids got to hand-feed the birds! Katie got too freaked out but Owen did it!!
WHAT U TALKIN BOUT
The cousins were all having a ball playing together and I thought they’d have a blast playing “WHAT U TALKIN BOUT?” (the game where you try to say phrases while wearing dental mouthpieces—there are many versions of this game). Katie had bought it for Owen for Christmas and we weren’t set to open it for days but I am glad we did…we haven’t laughed so hard in a long time! It was definitely worth the $2.50 sale price at the dollar store.
Katie tiger!
Can you tell the face paints were a HUGE success?! This one was painted by cousin Gabby!
Christmas with the Schwalms
Playing in the snow with cousins!
Apparently shoveling is fun if you’re doing it with cousins and not because a parent asked you to do it.
We didn’t bring snow pants so jammies have to suffice. She didn’t care one bit.
Attack on the living room window!
Cousins Gabby and Robert!
Cousins on the Schwalm side
Everyone was gathered for Aunt Florence’s memorial—and it was the first time our kids met the Hough side of the Schwalm clan. They are lined up by age, with Katie being the youngest at 5 and Gabrielle the oldest at 14.
Then we took a selfie because we haven’t done so in awhile.
I love our kids, but…
I love our kids but I miss the days before kids when our schedules weren’t as insane and we’d all be in Grayling together over the holidays. (Of course, missing Kathryn and Marcus here!)
He looks at this book every morning and every night.
This Lego Minifigure history book (LEGO Minifigure Year by Year: A Visual History) was a Christmas gift from Uncle Doug, Aunt Marie, and cousins Gabrielle and Robert—and he LOVES it! I’ll turn on his monitor in the morning and he’s flipping through pages. At night, that’s the book he wants me to “read” (I say “read” because he really just wants to flip through the pages and look at figures and ask me what their names are). Almost all of the figures he says “I want this for next Christmas.” 🙂
EDITED TO ADD THE FOLLOWING NIGHTS AS PROOF:
