The time I spent at my Mom and Dad's for Christmas went by far too quickly. It's hard to believe it's over already. Even though I was there for five days, it seemed a much shorter period of time. There was baking to be done and babies to hold, Christmas letters to address and get in the mail, shopping with my Dad for Mom's gifts and wrapping them once they were purchased.
My Mom has a Christmas Eve birthday, so we always celebrate our family Christmas that day. We eat lunch together and then the chaos ensues and we open gifts. Usually we wait until Santa has visited us, but this year he was too busy to come in person so he left the bag o' sacks with my Dad so he could distribute them. Without further adieu...
Here's a picture of me and Zach, he showed up in festive attire and together we looked very Christmas-y.
Zach wasn't the only baby in the house, though. This is me with Caden. He must be teething, can you tell?
My Mom with her great-grandson, Caden. Notice the antlers she's wearing.
Caden with his Aunt Katie and Uncle Christopher.
Zach's getting to be such a big boy already. Such a serious face, such a cute outfit. He even had on red socks!
Here's Zach and his Mommy (Terri) checking out a book Santa brought him.
Caden's getting pretty good at sitting up without help. But that's his Mommy (Rachel) behind him making sure he doesn't topple over. And yes, he is even smiling!
Daddy (Andrew) and Caden with his sack of goodies from Santa. As you can see, he's way more interested in chewing on the sack than he is about what's in it.
My sister Jenny and her son, Kyle. Kyle was the baby of the family until Zach and Caden came along. He'll be 13 in March.
My brother-in-law Kenny, sister Teresa, Lynette (John's girlfriend), Zach and brother John as the present frenzy was beginning.
Nephews and nieces: Christopher, Anissa, Jessica and Frank (Katie's boyfriend).
Christopher posing for me with the "Push! I Neigh!" sticker on his shirt. It came on the barn toys my Mom got for both babies. I pushed the button and he really did neigh! Delightful.
I didn't take pictures of them, but I got a very cool bread machine (which my Mom got for a huge bargain at Kohls.com), a nifty soup pot and a new crock pot! I also got an outdoor planter, a gift certificate for a pedicure and some lotion that Lynette actually made. No complaints from me, now I just need to get cooking and making some bread.
This past Saturday Great Bend's classic rock station, 104.3 The Point, gave away a Harley Davidson V-Rod motorcycle in their Harley Jolly Christmas contest. My brother John signed up at Knop Auto Parts in Ellinwood and was thrilled to be among the 100 finalists. You had to be present to win, so Saturday morning he braved the blizzard that was raging and went to the drawing in Great Bend with his girlfriend Lynette and his oldest daughter Jessica.They had each person's name assigned to a number and his number was 89. They had the numbers printed on balls (think Bingo). After all the balls were in the machine, they started pulling balls out one at a time. If your ball was pulled, you were disqualified. And so it went. He was in the final 10 and had to go up on stage at that point as they continued to draw out balls and dismiss the non-winners. It got down to the final two: John and one other guy. His ball was a white ball with the number 89 on it, so when he saw a yellow ball come up next, he knew that was the other guy's number and he was the last guy standing. That meant he won a motorcycle!He said afterward that if he was ever going to have a heart attack, that would have been the moment it would have happened. Here's a picture of him on a comparable bike, but he has to come Alefs here in Wichita and pay the taxes before they'll let him take it home. 
His youngest daughter Victoria is a finalist for a Mini Cooper that she registered for at the Fair in September. I think she'll find out Monday if she's won that. It could be a very happy 2008 at their house!
I'm going to try and get you caught up on my life as it happened over the weekend prior to Christmas. On Saturday I baked a batch of sugar cookies. I had forgotten my signature holly leaf and Christmas tree cookie cutters and the recipe at home. Argh! I went to my sister's house because she had given me the recipe many years ago and looked for it in her cookbook cabinet. I found four recipes for sugar cookies and knew that none of them was the one I use. I went on to plan B and called my friend Joyce who I had given the recipe to several years ago. Luckily, she was home. Instead of holly leaves and trees, I improvised with a cup and just made round cookies. Ornaments, we'll call them. I also baked some English muffin bread that turned out quite yummy. I got the recipe out of our Wichita Eagle holiday cookbook. My family (especially Dad) loved it.
Just before Saturday evening Mass my sister, Jenny, and her family arrived in Ellinwood. We all went to church and then back to Mom and Dad's for potato soup. It had snowed a bit during the morning and the soup sounded good for a cold, snowy night.
After we ate, I decided to go to my Uncle Ed's house and see him and my cousins (his four boys are more like my long-lost brothers than my cousins). I ventured out with my nephew Jeffrey (he's 14 and very talkative) into the night. It's important at this point of the story to tell you that Ellinwood got about a foot of snow the previous weekend. So there was still about 8 inches of snow on the ground in some places.
Jeffrey and I headed south toward Stafford County and turned off the highway to go east toward Ed's house. Silly me. I had forgotten that this particular road drifts terribly and my poor little Honda was no match for the piles of snow that were waiting for us there. I got about a 1/4 of a mile down the dirt road when I got high-centered and had no hope of getting unstuck on my own. I reached for my cell phone, but couldn't reach it because it was back at my parents' house. Crap! Jeffrey gets out and tries to push me. Nothing budged. Neither one of us are really dressed for snow. He has on some thin pajama things and Crocs (at least he had socks on, too) and I had on a thin jacket over my t-shirt and pants. But at least I was wearing tennis shoes and socks. So I decided that I'd walk to the nearest house which meant back to the highway and about a 1/4 mile north. I hoped they were home. Jeffrey loaned me his coat, which was much heavier than the one I was wearing. I started walking and was disgusted to find that I was walking directly into the wind -- holy cow it was cold! Once I got to the highway I was sheltered a bit from the wind. I kept thinking that at least there was a full moon and I could see where I was going. Once I got on the highway and headed north I was able to make a little better time. But I hadn't gotten far when I heard a car approaching from the south and I tried to decide whether I would flag them down or not. I said a prayer for them to not run me over and for them to not be a crazed serial killer. My prayers were answered on both counts. Some nice woman (I had no clue who she was) stopped and let me use her cell phone to call my uncle's house. Once I had told my cousin Dan where I was stuck, I thanked the woman profusely and turned down her offer to sit and warm up in her car. I explained that my nephew was waiting at my car and I needed to get back over there. I walked back and it wasn't nearly as bone-chilling on the return trip with the wind at my back. Shortly after I returned to the car, my cousins Scott, Dan and Jason showed up to rescue us. They pulled us out and I got turned around so I was going back toward the highway. I got stuck again following Jason out but I was able to get going again. Then I got stuck a third time and I couldn't budge the car this time. They pulled me out and just kept on pulling me until there was no more snow. When they stopped to remove the tow chain, I handed them the Christmas letters for their families that I was planning to hand-deliver and told them it was nice to see them and thanks so much for rescuing me, but I wasn't going to be able to go any further. It was almost 9 o'clock by this time and I was exhausted.
In retrospect there are so many things about this incident that are just ridiculous. But Jeffrey loved it that we had an adventure together, even though he kept complaining about having a frost-bitten toe. As far as I know it hasn't turned black yet, so I think he'll be all right.
Today I traded in work and spent the day with Zach instead. First thing this morning we played with blocks. He's very smart and was able to spell out his name. Well, maybe he had a little help.
He's working on figuring out how to crawl. He gets into position, but can't make the legs work like they need to yet. So he does a pretty cool belly crawl to get where he needs to be. Late in the morning, his cousins (my nieces) Jessica and Victoria showed up and they put my springy Santa hat on him. I think he liked it.
Aside from the fact that he didn't take a nap that was longer than 45 minutes, it was a wonderful day. I didn't get anything accomplished (Christmas letters? who needs 'em!), but I sure had fun snuggling with the baby. It's hard to believe he'll be 8 months old next week. I'm gonna take those snuggles when I can get them!
Here's Zach and his Mommy (Terri) checking out a book Santa brought him.
My sister Jenny and her son, Kyle. Kyle was the baby of the family until Zach and Caden came along. He'll be 13 in March.
Nephews and nieces: Christopher, Anissa, Jessica and Frank (Katie's boyfriend).
I didn't take pictures of them, but I got a very cool bread machine (which my Mom got for a huge bargain at Kohls.com), a nifty soup pot and a new crock pot! I also got an outdoor planter, a gift certificate for a pedicure and some lotion that Lynette actually made. No complaints from me, now I just need to get cooking and making some bread.
His youngest daughter Victoria is a finalist for a Mini Cooper that she registered for at the Fair in September. I think she'll find out Monday if she's won that. It could be a very happy 2008 at their house!
When we were finished with our exchange, there was still time to get back to Mom's house and take some pictures of Zach with his Nutter Butter cookie before Terri picked him up.
Notice the line of spit from chin to hand. Priceless!
Such a cutie.
He's working on figuring out how to crawl. He gets into position, but can't make the legs work like they need to yet. So he does a pretty cool belly crawl to get where he needs to be. Late in the morning, his cousins (my nieces) Jessica and Victoria showed up and they put my springy Santa hat on him. I think he liked it.
Aside from the fact that he didn't take a nap that was longer than 45 minutes, it was a wonderful day. I didn't get anything accomplished (Christmas letters? who needs 'em!), but I sure had fun snuggling with the baby. It's hard to believe he'll be 8 months old next week. I'm gonna take those snuggles when I can get them!
Lori B. looked like a flapper from the 1920s with the bow from her gift wrapped around her head. The Dirty Santa gift exchange was quite fun. Especially for me. I had the luckiest number - 18 - out of 18 guests. That's the first time that's ever happened, I swear! There were so many good books to choose from that I swiped one that Peggy and Carrie had been swapping back and forth all night called "A Wrinkle in Time" brought by Lori B. It has bonus highlights because she read it while in college and had to write a paper about it. I figure it's like the Cliff Notes, so I'm sure to get a lot out of this book!
