The Bansemar's

Monday, January 18, 2010

Lunch with the Krazy Kousins

Alana was invited to join her Grandma Mary, Aunt Laurie Allen, Cousins Sandy Peterson & Kathy Hayden for a really fancy lunch at Lake Park Bistro. Melissa was only invited to be Alana's means of transportation. We started off at the condo for coffee and hot chocolate and headed out for the delicious lunch. Alana was wonderful for the nearly 3-hour lunch. She was not impressed that we were staying for dessert but survived things just fine. Thank you for including us in your tradition!!!

Alana and her bumpo

The Rest of Christmas

We started off Christmas Eve at Shawn's parents condo around 4pm.

Afterwards, we went over to Melissa's parents to open gifts with all the kids. They were estatic to see us because then they know it is PRESENT TIME! Better watch out for all those bows flying through the air!

Jenny had made this Santa in high school art class and

Daryl gave it away while cleaning out the basement.

On Christmas morning, Shawn, Melissa & Alana exchanged gifts at our house. Shawn got a Robin Yount signed baseball bat while Melissa got some bling for her ears. Alana got a few toys and a car seat.

Around noon we went over to Melissa's brother's house for Christmas with her Mom's side of the family.

Around 5pm, we left Jeff's house to travel back to Shawn's parents' condo to celebrate Christmas with his Dad's side of the family.

How the times have changed....

On December 23rd, the Maio family was gracious enough to host a mini Shorewood High School reunion. Ben Sattell was in town for the holidays along with his family, Flowers, Hawk & Moses. Also in attendance was Bilal & Usnije Hamden with their daughter SuSu; and, of course, Matt, Sarah & Genevieve Maio. I love the picture of the big boys and their children. Please notice that our daughter is sticking her tongue out at Ben and he sticks his back out at her. The things that he is teaching her...hmmm

Santa's girl

Christmas Part I of VI

My father's side of the family decided that it was too difficult for everybody to celebrate Christmas on Christmas, so we celebrated two weeks early this year. We had an excellent time visiting everybody. Santa's elves even stopped by to check on the kids and drop off candy canes, reindeer antlers. They were warned that Santa was still watching over them. Yikes!

The Popcorn Incident

We received a large tin of popcorn as a thank you for buying the new mini van. Once we've decided we have had our share, we thought the dogs were deserving of some. Despite the amount of coercing, they refused to eat directly out of the tin. As soon athe popcorn itself was on the floor, game on. Shawn even tried to show them how to do it.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Let it snow, Let it snow

On December 8th, we experienced our first snow storm of the season. Once the storm was over, there was over a foot of accumulation. I loved it since Alana & I stayed home to watch the snow fly. Shawn, however, decided there was money to be made and thought he should head down to work in New Berlin. Well. After he snow blowed the driveway at 5am, he decided he should leave quick before the city's snowplows trap him in at the end of the driveway. Mind you, he is driving our brand-new minivan out into the snowstorm and through our unplowed street. Remember? A foot of snow? I had just finished feeding Alana when I get a call from Shawn saying he is waiting for the plow to drive by at the end of our street, a whole 300' away from our front door. It was making a pass and piled up a large amount of snow in front of the van. Alana & I watch from the bedroom window. We get a call 30 seconds later from Shawn to let us know he is stuck and cannot move. After making certain Alana is happy and safe in her crib, I get bundled up, grab the monitor, shovels & salt and walk down the middle of the street. After about 20 minutes of shoveling & pushing, Shawn is out and on his way to work. Knowing Alana was still asleep, I went to work with snow blowing the sidewalks but stopped when I temporarily broke the snow blower. What a morning and all by 7am. Oh well. It made for beautiful pictures!

Let Christmas Begin

Our tree hunt began at Menard's but we were not impressed with their skeletal selection so we tried out Stein's Garden & Gifts with a much larger selection. Shawn checked out the artificial trees, but decided the real thing was the way to go as the artificial trees looked just too fake. Hopefully, that will be the end of that yearly argument. Even though we checked out many trees, we ultimately decided on the first one Melissa examined.