Christmas Visits or "MY ICE!!"

Wistful...Chris tree....presents.

Happy New Year!  It's been a while since my last post, and we've been uberbusy.  We took a trip to Texas for Christmas.  We stopped off in Louisville to leave Boomer and Sadie with Kellyn and Josh (Thanks again, guys!).

Xander started sitting
up before we left for TX.

Then we drove.  To Fort Worth. Texas.  First, I have to say that the Toyota Sienna is an awesome machine.  We rode for about 14 hours in the Sienna--and were pretty comfortable, even with 2 kids, suitcases, and a crapton of presents.  I prepared for the trip by packing an emergency kit of toys--mostly stuff I'd gathered from various kids' meals over the last couple months.  I have to say, it was a stroke of genius.  Sometimes it even bought us five or ten minutes of silence from Ainsley.  Xander was great on the trip, but Miss A spent a lot of time screaming, "I'm STUCK!  HELP! HELP!  Want DOWN!"

Ainsley eyeing Meme
as Xander NOMNOMNOMs

Christmas with Meme

We sent to visit Sean's Meme--his late mother Jeanna's mother.  Meme lives on her own and walking into her house is like walking into 1975.  She even has that awesome flocked wall paper.  Meme is the kind of woman who'll come up to you and give you a big ole Texas hug and say, "How're you doin'? It's *so* good to see you!"  And Meme means it.  It is impossible to not love Meme.  (Also, if you can't tell, I love everything about Meme--including the fact that she calls herself Meme--it's just too cute.) It was good to visit with Jeanna's family.  Ainsley got to meet some of Sean's cousin's children; I think that was the relations--I'm so not doing that twice removed second whatever math.  There were kids.  They played together.

Uncle Victor

Cousin Matt

Ainsley had a lot of fun playing outside with the football.  The weather was really nice (note she's wearing a sweatshirt jacket), and she got to run around Meme's yard.  She enjoyed all the attention from the family.  Xander was also his charming self.  He particularly focused on falling asleep on the Sobotik men.  Above, you'll see Xander sleeping on Uncle Victor and Cousin Matt.

Presents with Aunt Candace

Uncle Brian

Ainsley got some food and pots and pans from the Potankas and the Sobotiks--and she greatly enjoyed them.  (She still enjoys them, though the food is currently in solitary for her refusing to clean it up before bath; it's expected to be released back into the main population tomorrow).  Xander got some noisy keys and a soft book--both which have proven excellent for nomming.  Nomming continues to be his main occupation: more on this later.

Christmas Eve

Dancing at the party.

Sean's dad and Kelly have a sip a nog party every Christmas Eve.  Mostly it's a "come and go as you please" kind of event that revolves around Fred making what is probably the best eggnog on the planet. (Side note: I now have the eggnog recipe, for those of you who want to try a sip a nog party in Fort Wayne next year.) It was at this illustrious party that we discovered something very valuable.  Ainsley LOVES Sonic ice.  Ainsley loves Sonic ice to such an extent that once she discovered the magic that is Sonic ice, she spent most the of remainder of our vacation either negotiating for or lamenting over "MY ICE!!!"

Miss A and Grandpa

Xander and Grandma

I had great fun getting the kids dressed up for the party--it gave me an excuse to put A in her adorable Christmas dress.  Xander wore his thermal undershirt with Chris trees and snowmen.  I bought his outfit at Christmas time in 2009 when he was a growin' in mah belleh.  Honestly it's a Christmas miracle that he could fit into it.

The Christmas tradition that we've started with the kids is the opening of a present on Christmas Eve.  This present generally manifests as Christmas PJs.  Shh!  Don't tell the kids.


Christmas Day

Examining the milk and cookies
Santa ate.

Xander and Max.  NOMNOMNOM

Christmas morning we opened presents.  Ainsley got lots of awesome presents--animals, dolls, clothes.  Santa brought her a Noah's arc.  She kept calling Noah "Santa," and the secularness of it all made me giggle.  Ultimately, she was more excited about opening the presents than the presents themselves. She really enjoyed playing with her cousin Madison--the two of them tore it up!  Xander had a good time for his first Christmas as well.  He got some toys for the bath from Santa.  Again, mostly he was more concerned with the nomming than anything else, so it's a good thing that we got Xander a bunch of nommy toys for Christmas.  After the present melee, Ainsley played with her toys while Xander and I took a nap.  Then the kids played with their toys by the Chris tree.  It was adorable...as documented below.

First Christmases wear out little men.

Austin!

Introducing Charlie to Care Bears.
Uncle Jason is captivated as well.

After Christmas, we traveled down to Austin to visit the Grafs.  We have some bad luck with our Graf visits of late--this time was no exception.  Both Xander and I were sick for the trip.  I got to spend a few hours waiting in an Austin med clinic for some antibiotics for an infection.  

Xander....well, Xander projectile everything from every end of his body.  He was pooping everywhere.  He was puking everywhere.  He was in good spirits, so I wasn't too concerned (some, yes), but man, he was messy.  I think we did about 3 or 4 loads of laundry while we were there; we were there for less than 2 days.  Ultimately, we discovered that Mr. Illness was growing teeth!  Two new teeth made an appearance while in Austin.  Yay Xander!

Loving on George

This is probably right before she
yelled at him "MINE!"

One of the funnier things that happened while we visited the Grafs is Miss A's bossiness reared its ugly head.  Ainsley is going through an awesome selfish phase right now.  Everything is my, mine, or Ainsley's.  Even things that are Charlie's are Ainsley's.  Apparently Charlie has yet to find a person who is immune to his considerable charms...until our visit.  Miss A spent a lot of time yelling at Charlie.  Charlie took it like a champ for the most part--every now and then A's nastiness would throw him for a loop and make him cry.  Sean was very proud that Ainsley is already not tolerating any shenanigans from any boys.

MY ICE!!

Helping Grandma take down
Chris tree ornaments

We drove back to Indiana in about 13 hours.  The return trip was much easier since the discovery of Sonic ice.  Every few hours, we'd stop at a Sonic, get a cup of ice, and Miss A was satiated for a bit.  

Louisville
We had Christmas with my dad & the family on the way back from Texas.

My dad has 3 clocks in his living/dining room/kitchen--two cuckoo clocks and one of those old school clocks that dings every 15 minutes.  Ainsley finds this amazing.  We spent many many hours visiting the "CUCKOO CLOCK!!"  *Gasp* "Mommy!  Clock!"  It's quite cute.  I almost want to get a cuckoo clock to make her happy--but then I realize it'd drive me nuts. This gets to be something special about Grandma and Grandpa's house.

We had a good visit.  Kellyn picked up some DQ ice (as all the Sonics had closed) and some rum, and we made some Fred eggnog.  It was delicious!

Alysse also took some awesome 6 month pictures of Xander.  Watch for them soon!

Xander and Grandma

Ainsley and Grandpa

Xander and Ainsley had fun visiting with my grandparents, Grandma and Grandpa McGhee.  There was lots of cuddling, sharing of ice, and looking at cuckoo clocks. Grandma was born on New Year's Day, so it was nice to be able to be with her to celebrate her 74th birthday!

We got home on January 2.  We'd been gone almost two full weeks--and now deem that "too long."  It took us all almost a week to recover from the driving and bed hopping.  It was great to see all our families; we had a wonderful holiday.

Honestly though, I'm really looking forward to next Christmas--when we'll stay home and make more traditions.