Christmas 2010

Some pictures from our Christmas celebrations throughout the last week...

{Rice Christmas: Snoozing; attempted family photo at the train exhibit; snuggle time with Poppy and Uncle Dirt}

{The doggies in their holiday finery, courtesy of Lolly and Poppy.}

{Christmas Eve}

{Christmas Day: The boys in their new Christmas pjs; our MOST FAVORITE gift of all, a handmade ornament from Miles; Miles getting some good out of a new toy; John chilling on Santa's gift; Miles modeling his dino T}

{Habegger Christmas: Noses with Daddy; a recorder demonstration for Miles; the boys in their new wagon; fun on the ice; checking out the duck house with Grandpa}

It's hard to believe that another Christmas (and year, for that matter) has come and gone. As always, we had a very special and relaxing holiday filled with lots of family and good food. We started our celebrating in Fort Thomas just before Christmas. Lucie and Kurt were in town, too, so we were able to spend some good quality time with them. We were pretty lazy while we were there, but we did manage to see the Christmas train exhibit downtown.

Then we headed back home for Christmas Eve. After church we had a fabulous dinner with Nate and his family (plus the rest of the Habeggers). Miles was so excited to play basketball with cousin Brady and big, ultra-cool cousin Max. John had fun chilling with the twins.

Miles was much more into Christmas this year, and what fun that was for us all! He got into the spirit by setting out cookies and milk for Santa (but not before sampling the cookies) and getting into his presents. He had a tough time sharing, though. John's first ball quickly became Miles' new basketball. After some serious naps, my parents arrived in time for another round of gifts. Then Josh's parents came over for another amazing duck dinner, courtesy of chef Josh.

We spent part of this week in Berne celebrating with the Habeggers. The boys got a new wagon and the kids had a hard time staying out of it! As long as it doesn't get pushed down our driveway, that will see some serious action this spring! It was cold enough to have a roaring fire out at the cabin and play around on the iced over pond. The kids loved being pulled around on sleds and played until their faces and fingers were pink from the cold.

Oh, and one more awesome thing about our holiday this year: Miles is no longer a diaper wearing child! After laying some groundwork over the summer, we finally had a long enough break from school, etc. that we could really concentrate on Operation No More Diapers. He actually took to it much faster than I had expected, making me wish I had done this a couple of months back. With the exception of sleep times, we are officially diaper free!

Here's to a wonderful, family-filled Christmas and a great 2010. And cheers to a happy 2011!

Snow Days

Despite their grimaces, we had fun outside this past week. John's snow experience was short lived, but Miles enjoyed making snow angels and spraying Arch with snow.

Santa Brunch

You can see that Santa was not a big hit with the boys this year.

John at Eleven Months

Sweet John is eleven months old today. Still loves his brother and his doggie. Still a great sleeper. Still a total sweetie. I do wonder what things will be like when these boys are teenagers. Things like my grocery bill. This child might have a bigger appetite than his big brother. I feel pretty fortunate, though, to have boys who eat with such gusto.

John is a very fast mover, still doing an Army crawl. He's a little chatterbox, and I wonder if he and Miles are developing their own language. Those two squawk back and forth to each other all day long. This last month it has become nearly impossible to change and dress him. He just wants to wiggle everywhere. But he'll still sit long enough to smile and let me take his picture.

Christmas Decorating and First Snow

I've always loved to decorate for Christmas. Always. I have such fond memories of our tree trimming at home. We'd put on the Amy Grant Christmas record, my dad would put the tree up, then he'd spend awhile trying to untangle the strands of lights, eventually getting them hung. Since that would take at least one play though of the record, he'd retreat to another room leaving my mom, sister and I to decorate the tree.**

I have always had idyllic thoughts of how Josh, our children and I would decorate together. Nope. History repeats itself at our house. Only John is too young to decorate and Miles gets too bored. Josh did hang out with me while I hung the ornaments Sunday night, and Miles did help put together a tabletop decoration and hang ornaments on the boys' tree.

**(Honestly, these ARE happy memories for me. Mom and Dad, please don't think otherwise. I think it's funny how we decorated together. And how I know we'll decorate around here in the future.)

Only one ornament broke on Miles' watch. I, unfortunately, broke several.

We awoke Saturday morning to a nice covering of snow. I bundled Miles up and we headed outside to play.

Then his gloves came off and his little fingers got cold. Really cold.

He tried to warm them up by brushing the snow off onto Archie. It didn't help, so we came inside.

John and Josh stayed warm inside.