Santa Visits The Grandbabies

Last week Santa visited Tyler and Caitlyn's house to see the grandbabies....Madden's little buddy, Declan, was over, and you could tell he really like "Santa."  Lennox liked Santa from afar and, Madden was indifferent (because he could tell who Santa was) and Eli was just his happy little self.

Reinoehl Side Christmas

Had Pam, Jeff and their family, along with our kids over for pizza, apples and dip, shrimp and cookies to exchange gifts on Sunday evening.  Always fun to get together...

Gunnar and Santa

Each year he gets excited to "go" until he finds out where he's going...

Game Day - Bears vs. Packers

Sunday was game day and it was freezing.  We each wore three layers of clothing and snow pants and heavy coat.  We made sure to bring hand warmers and blankets.  15 degrees at game time.  We arrived about 2 hours beforehand to try and get a little bit of the game day feel.  I was surprised to see how many people even though it was cold.  Ben kept saying they were "used to it up here" and yes, I actually did see one guy shirtless (crazy).  I had a feeling I would.  Our seats were above the tunnel that the players came out of and we also got a flyover.  Ben was certainly in his element here as well and it made my heart so full to see him so happy.  He told me this was the best Christmas gift to date.  The fact that I would go with him to a game in the freezing cold meant more to him than anything.  I bought Ben a new hat, a decal for his truck and we bought an ornament for the tree to remember this time at the Pro Shop the day before.  And yes, I wore my Bears gear.  I was happy to see so many Bears fans there as well.  All a friendly rivalry.  Fun.  The Bears kept it interesting, which is really all I wanted.  They fell short 21-13 to the Packers so of course we had to stay til the very end.  And I didn't mind.  The game was fun, I had great company and I did stay warm...up til the very last few minutes.  My toes started getting a bit cold.  And Ben's were as well.  But we made it and it was awesome.  Win or lose, either team, we didn't care.  It was a good trip.  One definitely we will always remember. Oh, and as we were unpacking our suitcase, guess what I found in the bottom....a penny.  I truly believe we had someone else with us at that game.  <3 p="">

Stadium Tour of Green Bay Packers

We took the Stadium Tour and it was really cool.  We got to see a suite and actually go in and sit and look at the field from the suite.  Afterwards, we headed down to the locker area and got to go through the tunnel that the players come out of onto the field, which was exciting.  We learned that the field is half turf and half real grass (the only NFL team) and that the average attendance on game days is 67,000 people.  Ben was definitely in his element.  Before we left, we took a look at the statues in front of the atrium and headed back to Manitowoc to check out Fleet Farm and go through a small park that had a decorative Christmas lights to drive through.  We stayed at the Baymont right on the lake.  Unfortunately, it was too cold to really enjoy it, but it certainly was football weather according to Ben.

Merry Christmas, Ben!

Ben opened an early gift for Christmas a few weeks ago...it happened to be Green Bay Packers gloves for him and a Chicago Bears winter hat for me...signifying that he would be going to Green Bay with me for the Bears vs. Packers game on December 15th.  This has been a long time in the making as I had a little help from an elf (cousin Brandon).  The weather has been somewhat tolerable the past month but come to find out Sunday that Green Bay would be pushing a high of 16 degrees...so we got all our winter gear together and headed out.  We left early Saturday morning and headed to Manitowoc (where our hotel was) and then onto Green Bay to check out the stadium, look around and take the stadium tour.  We learned many interesting facts about Green Bay.  One being that Lombardi, being an alumni of Notre Dame started Green Bay Packers with the color of blue and gold (they would always use the colors of their alumni college).  This of course, was an extra plus for Ben.  Ben also shared that his dad liked the "preacher" Reggie White.  We payed extra attention to any info on him as we made our way through the Hall of Fame before we took the Stadium Tour.  Another interesting fact...Green Bay Packers were set to be no more before they built the atrium.  Now they are consistently in the top 10 as far as revenue.  I have to say it was a beautiful building.

We then ate some lunch at the restaurant in the atrium - 1919 (the year the Green Bay Packers was formed). A guy that looked just like Ditka caught my eye, so of course I had to grab a photo with him!