A busy season

So it's taken awhile, but I finally have a chance to actually sit down and fill everyone in on the past month for the Oettel's. It has obviously been an extremely busy holiday season. December was filled with holiday parties for David's work....and our church. We particularly enjoyed the medical clinic's party at the country club. You can never beat a night out with giveaways and prime rib....not to mention silly games. I got ringed into playing sleigh bells (or the holiday version of chubby bunny). I did fairly well....but after about 9 marsh mellows I was finished. David's boss, who is quite a big guy won the game with about 13 marsh mellows. I said from the beginning he had an unfair advantage.

We also enjoyed our small group ugly sweater Christmas party where we came home with a new gold fish we call Jonah as our white elephant gift. December 16 we began traveling home for the big event. My older brother's wedding on the 22nd. We stopped halfway in Dickinson North Dakota for a fun night at the pool with a horrifyingly fast slide. David and Grace were the evil kinevals of the fam. We made it to St. Cloud and spent the first couple of days....then headed to the cities to run around doing errands for the wedding. Thursday night David went to the wild game and out with my brother and 13 other guys in a limo while me, michele ( my new sister-in-law), my mom and a couple of my brother's girl friends enjoyed a quiet dinner. Friday the kids went sledding with a bunch my sister-in-laws family, my brother, and then we had the rehearsal and dinner. Saturday was the highlight of the whole trip. My dad of course cried....which always gets me crying. It was such a blessed day. I am so thankful for my new sister-in-law and so proud of the man God is molding my brother to be. We had been hoping for this day for my brother for so long....and it was everything I had been praying for! Sunday we opened gifts and hung out with the family. Gracie of course opened a million gifts for Christmas and her Birthday. It's so hard to believe that my little baby is 6 years old. Christmas Eve (Gracie's birthday) we headed to St. Cloud for the annual appetizer extravaganza with David's family. We found out that David's brother and sister-in-law are having a little baby girl! Now we can finally get rid of all of Gracie's clothes we have been hanging on to for 6 years! Then on Christmas day we opened gifts with David's family. And let's just say that the kids are not lacking for presents.

I am shocked that we actually fit everything in the van. Literally the kids were surrounded with stuff in the van....and only had room to sit in their car seats. Thank the Lord we made it home safely. We saw 32 deer on the side of the road in Montana. We were on pins and needles praying the whole way! When we got back David had to work 2 days and then had a 4 day weekend...that was really nice. We got some projects done....including going through the kids toys and getting rid of a ton of them! New Years Eve we had a great king crab dinner and then put the kids to bed and had our neighbors over and spent the rest of the night playing games and stuffing our faces some more. So that about brings us into the new year. Nathan will be 1 on January 26th. His latest thing is teething. He is just now getting teeth....and unfortunately for him all four are coming at once. I think this should be a pretty sufficient update. I will try to do a better job in the new year of keeping our blog current. Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and New Years. Oh and if I have learned anything it is that we have forbid Grace to have a Christmas wedding! It's just so busy.