Over the river and thru the woods and along the interstate and thru the tollbooths...

New Englanders would never try to attempt a 24 hour cross country drive to attend a family Christmas. Heck, most of the people from Massachusetts have never been to Maine!! We Shervas have not become soft, and to prove so, we decided to drive home to Minnesota for the holidays. The drive took us about 24 hours. We drove straight through from Boston to Anoka only stopping for gas, bathroom breaks and coffee. Our drive to MN was pretty uneventful, there was very heavy fog in Indiana but we were able to just take our time and maneuver through without incident. I have to say, Ohio, you've got lovely turnpike reststops. I love having the option of Panera and Starbucks instead of having to go to a McDonalds. Indiana, seriously, Gary already sucks and people hate it. Could you finish up your road construction and fill your potholes. Are you trying to strand people there? You have the worst stretch of road in the 1400 miles we drove.

Phoebe loves to snooze in the driver's lap.

While in town we helped my sister Kris celebrate her 30th birthday. You really start to feel old when your younger siblings pass the 30 mark.

Following tradition, Christmas Eve was spent at my Aunt Colleen and Uncle Dick's house. We look forward to her homemade french onion soup every year....mmmm....

Cousins!

Helping Colleen in the kitchen.

Opening presents with Grandma Donna.

Christmas Day we had brunch with the Sherva/Hamann side of the family at Nancy's house. Rick received a new hunting hat. Very Elmer Fudd...


We also were able to spend time with my Grandma Jan and Papa Benny at my mom's house. That is where we had our ham course for the day. MMmmmmm, ham.

Aren't these two cute!!

We tried to see as many people as possible, but of course there is never enough time. I'm glad to say that we got some great quality time in with our nieces and nephews. They are seriously the cutest kids. I'm not saying that because I'm biased. They are seriously better than all of your kids. Here's a little photo montage to prove it:

Emma and Josie in the aprons I sewed for them.

Emma is already developing a keen fashion sense. I caught her trying to steal my boots!



She also enjoys working on complex science problems with Uncle Rick while drinking chocolate milk.

Emma loves hanging out with Reilly, she copies everything he does...

Reilly is 8 and loves playing hockey. I was able to see his goalie skills in action.

Nathan on Christmas morning, not entirely feeling the best but looking very festive in his jammy jams.

Nathan and Josie get along pretty well and are great at sharing.

We seemed to slack a bit on Christmas Day with the camera. No worries, you'll see more of these two cutie pahtooties soon. We'll be headed to Mexico for Mark and Danita's wedding in a couple weeks where Josie and Nathan will be living it up at our all inclusive resort ordering a non-stop flow of Cheerios and chocolate milk while floating in the pool. They've got their passports and are ready to party.

Phoebe's favorite Christmas present was not the ZhuZhu pet that I thought she would chase around the house but this box from Costco.

My favorite surprise of the season was our upside-down Christmas Tree that Rick created for me.

Happy New Year!