An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle but will never break. --Chinese legend

Monday, December 28, 2009

The 6 months of Christmas

David's six months of Christmas, which extends from the early Christmas presents he receives at Thanksgiving through Gotcha Day in May, is in full swing. Last Monday we had an early Christmas with Grandma, Grandpa, GG, Uncle Dave and his fiancee. The run away hit of the night was David's (first of three this Christmas) tool set. He insisted on opening it first and spent the rest of the evening wearing his ear protectors and sawing Grandma's furniture.
Ear protectors are necessary not just for working with power tools but for helping Grandma open presents as well.

David has also been taking full advantage of the winter weather. Tuesday Alma took him sledding with Sabrina and took some pictures in the spirit of the Christmas Story snowsuit.

We left Wednesday evening for Columbia and made it to Nahnee and 'Ramma's house without much difficulty despite sleet and freezing rain in Chicago. We went to church Christmas Eve, and, much to Kevin's dismay, followed that up with the annual LaBorde viewing of Christmas Eve on Sesame Street. If you don't know how Santa makes it down all those skinny little chimneys with his big brag of presents, you really must see it.
We had a very low key Christmas day. I stayed in my pajamas all day, and David had a great time opening all his gifts. Unlike last year, when it took over a week to finish going through his pile, he tore through all of his presents and everyone else's in no time and then demanded "more Santa!"
David with items from tool sets #2 and 3

Another picture in his stylish new safety vest and his Gamecocks basketball jersey.
Christmas Day was low key because my parents invite every single person they know to their house the day after for a Boxing Day get together. It is a lot of fun, and you can't beat grits, wings and a Chick-fil-A party platter. Yum. We got to visit with lots of family and friends, and David got to play with some of his SC buddies, including the lovely Haley and Kendall. We also went over to Haley and Kendall's house later that evening and watched David and the girls ignore their newly opened Christmas gifts in favor of running back and forth across the living room as fast as they could for the better part of half an hour.
Torturing Bette. Playing with Haley (who was a fan of David's safety goggles)
Having fun at H & K's house
We made it home just before 1:00am last night/this morning. It will probably take a few days to get back into our routine and detox David from the nonstop attention he received over the weekend. So far he seems to be recovering quite nicely. He had a good time going to Sabrina's gymnastics competition this morning and spent the afternoon playing with all his loot.
Based on this picture, I think my decision to sign him up for gymnastics was a good one. The yellow hat has a working light which will no doubt drive poor Pete to the brink of insanity.

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Catching up

Like everyone else in the world, we've been busy with holiday this and end of the year that, so I am delinquent in my posts. Here is a brief recap of the last couple of weeks.
Alma's daughter and David's hero, Sabrina, is on winter break for 3 weeks. David thinks he hit the mother lode. He has been having all kinds of fun with Sabrina, including a trip to see The Princess and the Frog. Never in a million years would I have thought to take my maniac child to sit through a movie, but he apparently was very good and enjoyed himself and the movie thoroughly. This is likely due in no small part to the fact that he got to sit with Sabrina and that Alma bought him a hot dog and his own popcorn at the theater.
We made the drive out to Dekalb Friday night for Adam's Christmas party. As usually happens with Adam's parties, the weather was questionable. Wintery mix + long boring drive + Friday rush hour = good times. Fortunately, David managed to keep it together for most of the ride. Once we were there, he parked himself by Adam's candy train with his new friend Logan and could not have had a better time. As a bonus, Adam and Laura gave David a marble set that lets him force Kevin and I to build various downhill courses for his marbles with all kinds of ramps and spinny things. They chose this gift not only because they thought David would love it (he does) but because he spent most of our last trip to Galena throwing some marbles around the house and screaming "NARMLES!" to everyone's amusement, especially his own.
Sabrina and David at the movies. David and Logan with the candy train. Narmles!
Saturday we went downtown to the Christkindl market at met up with our friend Nickie. We'd never been before and really enjoyed it. They sell all sorts of German things that your grandmother would love at outrageous prices, and the food was fantastic. Adams, if you come up next Christmas, you must go.
Today Kevin and David went to the Blackhawks game with Grandpa. We gave Grandpa an early Christmas gift of a Blackhawks jersey, or as the cool kids say, a sweater.
Kevin and David shovelling snow. David with his cheezborger cheezborger cheezborger before the game tonight. 3 generations, 1 sweater
I'm sure there is more to tell like what a great job David has done with potty training and how he hit my boss (and, quite frankly, if you'd been there, I think you'd have a hard time blaming him...sorry, Lyna) at our office Christmas party. Unfortunately, it is past my bed time and I have 3 days of you-have-to-give-me-antibiotics-because-he-CAN'T-be-sick-for-Christmas visits ahead of me at work.

Happy anniversary, Nahnee and 'Ramma!

David (and the rest of us) would like to wish Nahnee and 'Ramma a very happy 40th wedding anniversary today. We'll see you soon!

Sunday, December 6, 2009

Back to school

When Kevin visited Saguaro National Park last month while away on business, I was accused of neglecting the pretty cactus pictures he took because they did not include me or David. He went down to UofI with his brother, Allen and Adam this weekend to gorge himself on the food of his youth and take in a football and basketball game; and I will not make the same mistake twice. Here are the boys at Memorial Stadium, Assembly Hall (insert Aunt Judy's obligatory orange-is-so-tacky comment here) and in front of the creepy Alma Mater statue.

After Kevin got home this afternoon, we attempted to decorate the tree and get pictures for our Christmas card in the process. David was not particularly interested in either. Pete, however, was gunning for his second consecutive Christmas card appearance.