2nd Christmas in Peoria

(I already had this post typed out in detail and it was somehow lost)

We had an exciting trip to Peoria for our Christmas with the Williams.

Devin was too excited for napping....time for presents!


It's a.....


...dress-up trunk!


No trip to Peoria is complete, without a stop at Monical's pizza.

Delicious as always!


We all played lots of, "Don't Break the Ice!"


Any guesses what this kitchen gadget does?

Here's a hint....Matt found it on a website called "stupid.com."


It's an egg white separator. The whites run out of his nose, like snot. Very appetizing.


LOVE the old school puzzles. They don't make em' like this anymore.


Where does this hair come from?


Gramma!


Devin rarely sleeps in the car, but all the excitement led to 2+ hour nap on our way back home.

Post-Christmas Activities

We had a really fun week of Christmas, even with Dev sick for most of it.

Friday night, Devin's cough kept her (and me) from sleeping. Seriously, I only slept about 3 hours and spent the day feeling "newborn" tired.

Our peds office is very good about last minute appointments, even on Saturday. The Dr. said her lungs and ears look clear, the coughing was probably due to drainage. She rx'd a miracle syrup....Devin finally got some sleep Saturday afternoon and evening.

Sunday AM, we drove to Peoria for Christmas with Grandpa & Grandma Williams. It's about 340 miles, so not too long and the weather was sunny. Devin did great during the car ride, entertaining herself with books, toys and the DVD player.

She was SO happy to see "PapaGramma," her phrase for the two of them!

I'm taking tons of pictures, but no way to upload because I forgot my cord.

The Big Day-Feliz Navidad!

Merry Christmas 2008!

The roof tarp/patch worked well & the water stopped coming in the front room. The visible damage is minimal & we're ready to fight our insurance company for a new roof.

The obligatory cat-in-a-present picture.


Dev's cold & cough is still bad & she's struggling to sleep.

Christmas morning started at 5:35 am for Dev & me. We let Matt sleep as long as possible, but it was finally time to open presents!

Turns out "Elephun" is lots of fun for Devin & less fun for the adult who has to constantly re-set the darn things. She does love it, though.


Check out her new "Tinkerbell" wings & delight at the Caillou toy I scored on eBay.


Thanks Uncle Carson & Aunt Catherine for the new guitar!




I decided to fix a different type of Christmas dinner this year.

I researched traditional Mexican Christmas dinners & made this menu:

-Baked Tortilla Chips & Homemade Salsa
-Shredded Beef Enchiladas
-Homemade Beef/Pork Tamales
-Spanish Rice
-Mexican Caesar Salad
-Ann's Apple Pie
-Homemade Cinnamon Ice Cream (made with my killer new ice cream machine)


This thing makes incredible, perfect ice-cream in 25 minutes. (No salt, ice etc...)

It's great to taste ice-cream with no preservatives and fillers. But, very rich and decadent.

My next project is creating sorbets, yogurts and low-fat ice creams.




Salsa!


My tamales, 2-days in the making.


Ann's Apple Pie. Incredible as always.


It was a wonderful day & night, except for missing family and friends.

It was Christmas Eve and all through the house...

Devin came down with an awful cold & a touch of croup. We only heard the croupy cough for one night, but she's still congested & miserable.



During her nap, it was finally quiet in the house.

This allowed me to hear the water pouring down the front wall of our house.





The good news: Matt found a roofing company to come out on an emergency call. It was pouring rain, cold and 3pm on Xmas Eve. He gave the guys a bottle of nice bourbon as a tip.

The bad news: The hammering woke up a cranky, sick & tired Devin.

The roofers told us what we already know.

We need a new roof. (Although this leak was not caused by the old/damaged roof)



Anyway, we went over to Gramma's for dinner and presents.

This helped everyone forget about sickness, leaking roofs & tiredness.


Until William turned on Mom's trash compacter. (Which isn't set up to compact)


It took about 30 minutes to get her trash can rescued from the jaws of compaction.


We had a great Surf n' Turf meal of Filet and Crab Legs. Yum yum yummy.

Early Wake Up Call

This is the 14th fairway at Indian Springs, we live on 16. Based on where the plane is located and where he was headed (Bowman Field), he missed our house by about 15 houses.

The pilot was the only person on board and was killed. He was young (25) and flying in from Chicago, Midway. There is no obvious cause for the crash, but he transmitted a distress signal and disappeared from radar around 5:00am.

The 5 buzzing news helicopters woke my Mom up, who called to see if we had heard anything.

The Trooper

Dev gets the Trooper of the year award, today. We had our final visit to the dentist to fix her front 2 teeth at 8:00 am sharp. (Add plenty of sleet, just to make it interesting)

She was not thrilled to hear about going to the dentist again & was silent during the drive. We were the first people in the waiting room, which a pleasant contrast to the usual insanity. Dr. Yang hustled past us at 7:58 am...right on time! We went back immediately and still no tears.

After a few minutes of NO2, poor Dev burst into tears. BIG tears. The Dr. explained what was going to happen and got her calm enough to begin. Once she started, Devin did amazing. The dentist says she's never seen a child this age tolerate what went on. They heaped on the praise and Devin was very proud. She crowed to the entire office, "I'm so proud of you going to the Dentist." She also said, "THANK YOU DENTIST." (unprompted of course, which cracked her up completely)

We completed the experience by raiding their treasure chest of a sparkle ball, ring, princess sticker, new toothbrush, Spongebob toothpaste and a pencil. Dev knows to strike while the iron's hot.

It was 8:45 when we walked out to the car. I (we) witnessed my first public spanking of a mother to her (younger/smaller than Devin) daughter. Yuck. She yelled in her face for, "not putting books back." Devin asked me all day what happened.

After all that, Devin chose to go to preschool. I gave her the choice to come home with me or go to preschool and work on her surprise present for Mama & Dada. We were only 5 minutes late and her favorite friends (twins AJ & Mya) had a Birthday party.

Finally, we had lunch with Dada & Gramma at Shiraz.

A 3.5 hour nap filled her afternoon schedule.

Christmas Past

Our original Mac is all but obsolete. So, Matt's been working on duplicating the hard drive contents. It's easy to duplicate, but hard to organize.

I ran across some really old pictures my Dad must have scanned in at some point.

Notice the Pooh Bear (bottom left). Ol' Pooh is currently in Devin's collection.



I only WISH we could get some snow like this!




I'm not sure who the woman is?


It's Christmas year-round in Holland, MI. I would guess I'm 3-4 here.


Wow. Now that's a flocked tree.


Dad had this picture dated 1964. I noticed no wedding rings yet....

MamaLou...Hubba Hubba!


I'm older here, but a cool Xmas picture. I remember those barrettes.

A Visit With Santa

One of the best purchases we've made for Devin is this Kitchen Helper stand. It allows her to work at the counter and be (relatively) safe from falling. It has 4 rails and is solid on 2 sides. She learned how to climb in and out of it easily. She's used it for about 6 months already and it lasts until 75 lbs I think.

Well worth the $.

She loves to help cook, especially pizza with da-da.





We decided to visit Santa this morning, we got there around 9:45 am & Santa was due to arrive at 10:00. The line was already about 5 deep, so we took our spot.

1st Christmas she was about 9 months old and seeing Santa was not a pleasant experience. But, she sure was cute!


2nd Christmas was even worse. We never even attempted Santa at 18 months.


Her favorite present during this Xmas, was the Gymbo the Clown Puppet.



(The first people in line were 18 month old twins. Who promptly screamed for mercy the entire time)

Dev was all smiles in line and was excited to see Santa. Just as we were leaving the house she was clingy and said she didn't want to see Santa. I told her that Christmas was all about having fun and if she didn't want to see Santa that was ok. I suggested that we get to the Mall and see how she feels...


We were behind a 2 year old and in front of a 2 and 4 year old (sisters), so there was plenty of action!

Dev kept asking when was it, "her turn?"




The moment of truth came and she was very willing to climb on up and discuss Christmas wishes with Santa. We had no tears and even a small conversation with the guy in red.

Obviously, this is serious matter...so the smiles were hard to come by.

When asked what she wanted for Xmas, Dev knew just what she wanted.

"Presents."

"What kind of present do you want?"

"Green."


Santa said he could look into some "green" presents. Could it be that my 2.5 yr old is already concerned about global climate change?

Or does she just want cash?


Here's my first Christmas (1972)