Christmas in Minnesota

We got to celebrate Christmas in Minnesota with Grandma Ludemann, Grandpa Ludemann, Aunt Amber, Uncle Brendan, Counsins Hayden & Abby, Great Grandma Bea, and Great Aunt Colette.

You would be impressed to hear all that we accomplished: A day at the Mall of America complete with a trip to the underwater aquarium, ridign rides at the nikelodeon land, and lunch at Crave, dinner for 8 adults, and 5 kids 3 and under ... at a nice restaurant ... made possible by a private room, several games of Zioncheck (one even by candle light - keep reading to find out why), watching snow flurries, going on a cold walk, watching neighbors ice skate, having a delicious Christmas meal after an hour long power outage right before dinner time, a few naps, opening a lot of presents, and getting to enjoy a lot of great company.

Here are some photo highlights:

The AQUARIUM

No Blog post is complete without a picture of Brooks in the stroller.

The RIDES

Back at MY PARENTS HOUSE

Opening PRESENTS

Luke made the paper airplanes and all the boys flew them!

The boys love reading and singing Christmas songs, so this book with Christmas Song lyrics in it was quiet a hit. We sang, 'We Wish You a Merry Christmas," multiple times.

Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa Hukee's House

We enjoyed a deliciouc meal and then hours of present opening. Actually it was hours for the adults, just minutes for the kids. Obviously they had way MORE gifts, but they also had way LESS self control so it didn't take long to rip through their stuff.

Daddy Reading Time

Go Tell it on the Mountain

Christmas songs are wonderful.

They have always been wonderful, but for me they used to be too familiar and non personal to really impact me. Ever since coming to know Christ as me Savior just 7 years ago, the lyrics seem to get better and better every year.

Does anyone find it odd, that I have been singing these songs for 26 years but only understanding, meditating on, believe, accepting, and truly hearing them for 7?

Just wanted to share a sweet section of lyrics from Go, Tell it on the Mountain:

"Down in a lowly manger
Our Humble Christ was born
And God sent us salvation
That blessed Christmas morn:
Go, tell it on the mountain
Over the hills and everywhere
Go, tell it on the mountain
That Jesus Christ is born."

Making Snowmen

Luke and I helped the kids make snowmen to hang in our house since there is no snow outside! The boys loved the project.



McCabe tried very hard to be careful.

After McCabe glued everything on with a lot of help from dad. He decided it needed random scraps of paper on it as well.

Number Four

Luke and I are eager to share that we are expecting Hukee Baby #4 to arrive at the end of June!

Leighton is so excited. He smirks whenever we talk about it. The other evening when we got home from bible study hangout, Leighton said, "I love you Mommy (and gave me a hug), I love you Daddy (and gave him a hug), I love you McCabe (and he kissed him), I love you Baby Brooks (and he kissed him), I love you New Baby (and put his head and hands on my stomach)." It was so precious so and wonderful to know that Leighton was excited just like we are. When you ask him if he wants it to be a boy or a girl, he either says, "We need to have 1 more boy before we can have a girl," or , "Let's have 10 more boys!"

When I talked to McCabe about it later that evening, I told him we were having another baby and he responded, "for Brooks?" He thought Brooks needed a baby, since everyone else
in the family has a baby. He is the only brother without a younger brother. When you ask McCabe if he wants it to be a boy or a girl, he says, "a girl!"

We love this baby so much already and talk about him/her all the time. The boys like to pray for this baby too!