A Very Merry Christmas Up North

The weekend after Christmas was our yearly Christmas in Eric's home town.   We were supposed to leave on Friday, but freezing rain and bad roads delayed us.  We left EARLY on Saturday morning so we could make it to the party that Nana's company provides for the children.

Eric and Connor chose to go to The Hobbit Part II (which they said was awesome), Nana Vicki accompanied Sadie and Isaac to Night at the Museum Part III (also very good!), and Nana Karen and I took Ramsey to see the Annie remake (Ramsey liked the music, but was "singing along" himself and was being a little loud, so we were in and out, intermittently)!  Another first for Ramsey... his first in-theatre movie!

After the movies let out, the kids met up with Santa, received their gifts (Connor, Sadie, and Isaac each got a nice chunk of cash and Ramsey received a musical bear), then had their pictures taken with him.  Santa mentioned to me a few times that he couldn't believe that Ramsey wasn't fussing or crying, as all the babies usually do at that age.  In fact, Ramsey held out his arms and wanted to go to Santa!

After our fun-filled party time, we went to Nana and Bumpa's house to eat yummy food (pizza, fudge, caramel puffed corn) and then open presents.  The whole gang was together again; Uncle Troy, Auntie Sarah, Sadie, and Isaac; Uncle Cory, Nana and Bumpa; and Connor, Ramsey, Eric, and me.  And, this year, Nana Karen came along too!  The puppies... mustn't forget the puppies (Maggie, Max, and Riggs)! 

Speaking of puppies...
Ramsey was quite enthralled with Maggie and Max through the glass doors.

We all exchanged gifts and received wonderful presents.  The kids were especially excited (of course), opening them feverishly, with wide eyes and big smiles!  Nana and Bumpa's lower level looked like a bomb had went off afterwards!

The kids played downstairs, crawling, wrestling, racing, and more!

Having to leave too soon, we packed up and headed home.  We're going to make a trip up North again in the very near future and stay more than just one day.  Family is dear, cherished, and, unfortunately, not always seen quite enough!

We are certainly fortunate to have such a wonderful family; here and not-so-near.
Merry Christmas!

Ramsey's First Christmas -

Christmas... what a special time of year!   Ramsey and Riggs both had their first Christmases with us.  It was priceless!

As usual, the house was decked out in gold and red, garland strands, and flickering lights.

Since Ramsey has been crawling everywhere, we decided not to push the fires this year, except on TV.
Notice the lettering on the stockings.  We joked that we should have named Ramsey "William" or something that started with a W.

Before Christmas, Ramsey was busy poking around in the presents.  He was Mr. Curios.

Here are my boys on Christmas Eve day, before we started opening gifts.

And Mom and I with the kiddos too....

Big Brubby Connor with Little Baby Bro...

Missing from the festivities: Uncle Lance.  He was sick with the flu.  :-(
Dear Auntie Peggy was there with us in spirit.

And, of course, our beloved family members that live far away.

Here's Connor with his gigantic candy cane and stack of presents.

Ramsey enjoyed the bows, wrapping paper, and boxes that his presents came in.

He enjoyed his nice presents from all of us too!

Connor got some fun stuff too; more Mega Bloks and a Kindle Fire HD to name a few.

Eric opening a present from the boys...

And Riggs got lots of presents as well.  He was so excited, he would barely sit still.... and he wouldn't stop licking me.  I guess that means "thank you"?!?!?!  Actually, that's kind of normal behavior when there's a lot going on.  ha!

Here's Connor checking out all of the cool new features on his Kindle Fire....

And here's Eric sarcastically showing how he games with a hand-held, playing around on my old smart phone...  He says he got gipped!

Ramsey was enamored with The Nutcracker musical statue that Auntie Nancy, Cooper, and Kahti sent.

 Here he is donning his "big boy" pajamas that he got from Nana Karen.

After a late breakfast, everyone cleared out their stockings and Connor helped Ramsey open his presents from Santa.

What a very Merry Christmas we had!

Food & Wine Connoisseur

Ramsey is usually my little sidekick in the kitchen.   These pictures reflect a little different aspect of his repertoire.  
These were taken at Mom's house.  We stayed for a few days, painting china and helping while hunters stayed.

A good read.   HA!  Health-conscious already.

Or maybe he was just hungry....

Um....

Eh?  Aye yi yi!

Ramsey's First Thanksgiving...

Though our Thanksgiving this year was very low-key (Connor was at his Mom's, Nana Vicki was recuperating from her foot surgery at home with Bumpa and Uncle Cory, and Lance was with friends), I still decided that it was imperative that we (Eric, Nana Karen, Ramsey, Riggs, and me) had the typical (aka "large") spread of food (a mammoth turkey and an "Apple of My Eye" cheesecake were the best, I thought.)

Ramsey was up with me in the morning, acting as my little sous chef/companion while I cooked.  He was in his high chair for nearly two hours before Mom and Eric stirred out of bed.  He was content with a few toys, watching me prep food, and singing silly songs while dancing around with spatulas.   We had a good time! 

The house was full of the Fall décor even though it was C-C-C-COLD outside with snow on the ground. 

Here's Ramsey and me in the kitchen, cooking.  ...such a trooper!  I had to sport the ol' apron for the day.

Dinner was ready at 1:30 (the usual time for our Thanksgiving meal), but Ramsey wasn't so ready.  We had to postpone chow time until the little scrapper woke up!  He....was...OUT!

After lunch, the rest of the day was all about relaxing and watching football!

The dishes waited a little while.

Riggsy got a few tiny bites of turkey, but he had a special treat of his own; a humungous rawhide.   He had it gone by the next day.  Oye!

And... speaking of dog bones....!!

When Ramsey hangs out in his Pack N Plays, he loves to chuck his toys out the side, onto the floor (this usually gets Riggs into trouble for snagging them... unless he can contain himself which is only about half of the time).   When I put the toys back in the pen, apparently I wasn't paying complete attention.  A new experience for Ramsey; the taste and texture of a new small rawhide.  Whoops.

So, all in all, it was quite an uneventful day, but we enjoyed ourselves.  We had leftovers for a week.  The rest of the weekend was spent putting up all of the Christmas decorations... and more football, of course.  :-)