A Christmas Update

I’m starting to understand the craziness that happens during the holidays. This has been, by far, the craziest, busiest December I think I’ve ever lived through. Oof. So here is (finally) an update.

We have had lots of adventures in the realm of ‘real food’ with the Little Man:

Like trying these cool mesh teethers for fresh food. One had a slice of peeled apple in it, the other had a piece of frozen peach. This pretty much sums up the first time trying them out ;)

He’s gotten much more used to them. He really likes apple pieces.

We have finally been able to get him to try new fruits and vegetables without hiding in rice cereal first. Yay! We have since tried peaches, squash and carrots.

Dad has had more time to try to help with feeding Nathan his solid foods in the mornings and evenings.

And we’ve introduced a sippy cup. He still hasn’t quite figured out how to hold it himself, but he certainly knows how to do the cup by itself (it’s empty in this picture though) and we got this great shot of the boys having hot cocoa together after we got home from church and watching the snow come down :)

I was asked to help plan our ward Christmas party and while the planning process was way more than I bargained for, it still turned out nice – I didn’t get too many pictures, but I DID get some of the centerpieces that I put together, which included 2 3-dimensional paper trains each…for 14 tables. We’re talking 20+ hours of work, even with help from the Sister missionaries!


We got ready for Christmas! And I fiddled with my new camera, trying to take pictures of the tree in the dark with the tree lights on. Still trying to figure it out… ;)


We spent the days leading up to Christmas with my family and opened presents with them on Christmas morning. Nathan loves paper, so he was all about playing with the wrapping paper and helping open presents! It was a very fun first Christmas with him.

Oh yes, and I made us Christmas jammies! :)

After presents, Jason settled into his customary Christmas nap with Sandi-puppy.

And Nathan tried to crawl. He’s getting close! I’m thinking by the end of next month will have it figured out. And then my life will be over as we know it ;)

We took family pictures, to include the traditional moaning and complaining and random faces…

But we eventually got a good one :)


Later on Christmas day we flew out to California (and I guess pictures of that will come later because I don’t have Nathan’s first flight pictures with me at the moment…) and endured several long hours of travel before arriving at John’s parent’s home. It was our first time taking Nathan on an airplane and we flew overnight and I was soooooo nervous. But Nathan did much better than we anticipated, even if he only slept 2.75 hours the entire 8-9 hours we traveled. By the time we arrived in CA, it was 2am in the morning in MD – I was dreading that 3 hour time difference – but given all of those circumstances, everything went really well with our trip. And our stay in CA was great! We ate In n Out, John got to go surfing, and I made my sister-in-law’s wedding cake! The main reason we went out there was to be able to be there for Amy’s wedding to Scott. And so that I could make the cake. And it was lovely. The wedding, I mean. The cake too. ;)

I got to play around with my camera again and took some pictures, but they were mostly of the reception and wedding décor, which was at my in-law’s house.

Here they come! Newly married!

And here are some pictures of the cake and reception.
We went with a vanilla cake with a raspberry mousse filling. The cake was decorated with fresh flowers and lace made by the bride’s great-great-grandmother. I was grateful that I didn’t have to decorate it really, it was crazy enough only having 3 days and sharing the kitchen with everyone while we got ready for the reception!! I’m really pleased with how it came out and I’m glad that I could do this for Amy and Scott.
The hot chocolate and beverage bar
Amy and Scott ;)

And after just a few short days, we made the trip home and got in last night. We got delayed in Chicago coming back and got in very late and we are still recovering. Nathan was again awake most of the trip, and it was quite the task to keep him entertained this time around. One effective form of entertainment was systematically crinkling every page of the SkyMall magazine. So fun. At least he slept our whole flight from Chicago to DC. Whew! He has been such a trooper with all the holiday and travelling craziness! So proud of him :)

And now we await the new year! And I know I put it up on facebook, but I better add our Christmas card up here since it probably won’t make it into the mail… And a newsletter may or may not happen…I’ve got it in a draft somewhere…but anyway, we hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and we are so grateful for all of you. Thanks for reading our blog and keeping up with us this year. Have a wonderful New Year!