who could resist?

miles and his blankie

turning on frosty (see below)
these are a bunch of auntie nykki''s crazy singing christmas toys. miles likes to line them all up on the floor...
...and start each one over and over again. it is a symphony.

dude, what is on your head?

you wouldn't guess how terrified he is of santa

josiah's first christmas

a kroening family christmas

after we cleaned up our christmas morning celebration, we headed out to the farm to celebrate with kyle's family. miles continued to get s-p-o-i-l-e-d. everyone is so generous...and it's clear that he is well-loved. we ate a big lunch (ham, cheese potatoes, pie, etc) and sat around chatting while miles snoozed. in keeping up with tradition, we all brought along board games...but we never played anything. perhaps next year will be the year we actually bust them out!

who's hungry?

helping grandpa open his presents

uncle clayt & uncle conrad built this for miles
[note the use of the appetizers for the face (those would be olives)]

I thought it was a daddy duty to wrangle the toys out of the box. somehow uncle clayt ended up with the dreaded job this year

snuggling with his new pillow pal from auntie jess
fancy tractor from grandpa...it even makes noise!who needs toys?

new family traditions

this year we wanted to start some new family traditions for christmas morning. here goes: santa gifts - lifesaver book? check. pjs? check. toy? check. caramel rolls for breakfast? check. christmas music in the background? (this one kills kyle) check. I'm sure our traditions will build each year as our family grows, but we are having fun mixing in some of our childhood traditions and adding some of our own. miles sort of understands the concept of santa. he gets that he puts presents in your stocking. so when I got him up in the morning I said, "who do you think came last night?" he said, "santa!" I asked, "what do you think he brought?" and miles said, "presents!!" smarty pants. so here are some pictures from our morning at home.

the stockings barely made it out this yearsanta even remembers tinker & tessie
miles with some of his loot from santa
santa brought me this...SO EXCITED!!
miles thought it was funny to put my lip gloss on his headone of many for the little monkey
I will post a video of him doing this later...he LOVES it!
breakfast in the living room...we are brave!
new PBK backpack - I'm not sure if I should love this picture or be terrified that he looks so old in it!
a good day to be miles!

the night before christmas

as always, we gathered together with my mom's side of the family on christmas eve. as we have gotten older, the gift giving has gotten less and less. we seem to have discovered that the real reason for the season and the greatest gift of all is to be able to spend time together with such an amazing family. in past years, we have adopted families in need and all bought gifts for them. this year we donated money to caring partners - the program that my grandpa goes to three days a week. they are hoping to get enough to purchase a projector and screen. grandpa has enjoyed his time at this program and we are all grateful for the much needed break it gives my grandma. the littlest members of the family - the great-grandkids - opened presents:

we had to pry miles away from the karaoke machine to open his present!

a new puzzle!
nykkole & cambelle
trying on sara's uggs

and we also celebrated olivia's 13th birthday! she was born on christmas day :)

if you've ever met the greseth family, you will not be surprised to see what game commenced after we had opened gifts and eaten a delicious meal complete with meatballs, polsa, cherry coke jello salad, and lefse. behold: the paper bag game.

rules: you must lean over and grab the edge of the paper bag with your teeth while balancing only on ONE foot. you must be able to stand back up with the bag in your mouth. after each round, approximately one inch of the bag will be trimmed off. good luck.

check out the techniques!

grandpa and grandma were thoroughly entertainedmiles was taking notes from daddy...

...and thought he would give it a try!

note - this pregnant lady decided NOT to take a go at it. I can hardly balance on two feet!

miles finished off the night with an episode of signing time...he realized at 10pm that he had not yet watched it. I guess time flies when you're having fun!