...What is this "blog" you speak of!?!

It's been well over a month since I last blogged. I wish I could tell you that my goal for 2013 is to blog more regularly, but I'd be lying.
And since my goal for 2013 is not to lie anymore, I won't say it. (Just kidding, that's not really my goal of course--we'll save those for another post..)
However, here we are! The holidays both dragged by and flew by at the same time. I love the holidays, but this year was tough on a girl! Every single shopping trip that I had planned (solo) was interrupted by either sick kids, bad roads, or something to that effect. Super stressful, especially because I am not a last minute person when it comes to Christmas shopping. I like to be done, and I like to be done EARLY. So aside from the stress that comes with that, our Christmas was great... We have such amazing families and we love to spend time with them, which is good-- because we had 3 full days in a row with them ;)
On Christmas morning, Max and I had two very happy children. Santa was good to them, and they were very pleased with all their new presents! I'm happy to say that the vast majority of everything we bought for the kids this year was purchased locally. Ryder loved all of his gifts--even the most practical ones (like a new sleeping bag!) and P was just excited to have boxes and paper to play with! We didn't go overboard for gifts this year, and I was a little nervous about how it would go over. We've really been trying to preach that giving is just as fun as getting, and that gifts are just a small part of Christmas, so we really didn't buy as many gifts as we have in the past...I was so relieved to see how happy they both were on Christmas morning and Ryder kept saying over and over what a great Christmas it was.... Made this mommy proud!
The rest of Christmas break was spent just hanging out. Both Ryder and Piper LOVE to go sledding and even just the little hill in our backyard can entertain them for hours :) Ryder also has recently fallen in love with skiing! His grandparents and dad have taken him a few times now, and he fell in love with it right away. Aside from skiing and sledding, he's also started basketball on the weekends, in addition to ice fishing with Max. That boy loves to keep busy. Now of course, he keeps asking when we can go ice skating.... There are definite perks to Minnesota winters. :) As for P, she's just chunky and cute and loves to follow her mommy around, which is okay with me :)
We rang in the new year staying in with the best of the best--good food, good family/friends, and good entertainment (catch phrase never fails to provide some good laughter!).
We have so much to look forward to in 2013 including more running/races, a girls getaway weekend in march, weddings, a possible boundary waters camping trip, and the annual Hendrickson Weekend in August--and of course, maybe a couple of other things here and there ;) Our family set goals together and we are ready to tackle them throughout the upcoming year!