Happy New Year!

Gail wanted to stay and see the ball drop at the Gass's house, but I was zonked, so we headed home early. Jack had a blast at the party though, where he played with all of Daphne's cool trucks and toys (she just turned one on Christmas eve) and danced to the music of Guitar Hero. Besides Abigail, there were two other seven-month-old babies (she wanted me to add that she was the youngest but the fattest), so she lived it up with her peers while the mommies tooted about the excellent sleep habits of the tots.

Joking. We did the opposite of that.

We wish you all a wonderful and blessed New Year!

together again

We held an impromptu gathering with the Wards and the Andraes last night. Stunningly serene, as usual. I looked around at all of the babies laughing and running (or wobbling) around chaotically and wouldn't want it any other way. The kids picked up right where they left off in Grand Rapids, and we got to catch up with the Andraes and their adorable daughter, Michelina.
We're looking forward to seeing them again later in the week, but I couldn't resist sharing some photos of the reunion. Speaking of which, I finally got some time yesterday to post some new web albums from our trips and celebrations in the past month.

Christmas down south

We got home this evening after a lovely and balmy trip to North Carolina. It almost reached 70 yesterday, and we all got to play outside-- with new trikes and neighbors' jungle gyms and fun relatives. We enjoyed Aunt Jean's Christmas brunch, as always, and got to spend a little time with Jack and Abigail's second cousin, Jet, who is as cute as he can be. When he first came to Honey's last night and saw Abigail, he studied her for a minute and then leaned over and gave her a kiss. He's only a month older than she, but he was crawling all over the place and pulling up on everything, until he pulled himself up to standing on Uncle Tee's leg. Jack went over to him like he was going to pick him up to move him. You can play with my toys, but not my Uncle Tee.

The third day of Christmas

We celebrated Christmas again here in North Carolina last night, but I failed to retreive my camera, so I'm stealing pictures from my sister's Facebook- just a few more from Christmas day. Mike finally recovered my computer from its case of Koobface, so whence we return, I'll try to get some updated albums.

First and Second Christmases

When the kids woke up and we asked Jack if he knew who came last night, an excited look spread across his face.
"Tee!"
Uh, no sweetheart. He was here all along.
He is still too young to really grasp what all of the hulabaloo was about, but it was fun, and exhausting at times. Gail slept through the majority of the unwrapping. They were two tuckered out kiddos at the end of the day. Tomorrow morning, we will drive the six hours down to North Carolina to celebrate with family there for a few days.

Rejoice, He is born!

O come, O come, Emmanuel

And ransom captive Israel

That mourns in lonely exile here

Until the Son of God appear

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Rod of Jesse, free

Thine own from Satan's tyranny

From depths of Hell Thy people save

And give them victory o'er the grave

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and cheer

Our spirits by Thine advent here

Disperse the gloomy clouds of night

And death's dark shadows put to flight.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, Thou Key of David, come,

And open wide our heavenly home;

Make safe the way that leads on high,

And close the path to misery.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

O come, O come, Thou Lord of might,

Who to Thy tribes, on Sinai's height,

In ancient times did'st give the Law,

In cloud, and majesty and awe.

Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel

Shall come to thee, O Israel.

May the Lord bless you this Christmas and in the coming year!

Seven on Sunday- Christmas edition

1. We said tearful goodbyes to Uncle Tay today as he left to move back to Maryland to start a semester of classes. Actually, we'll be seeing him tomorrow night at my parents', and I think the tears (which belonged to Jack) were just a protest to going to go to Mass. But we are sad about having our only family in Pittsburgh leave us. Jack will be so sad. Whenever I say to him, "Guess who we're going to see..." tonight or tomorrow, or whenever, he always says, "Teeee!" with a big grin on his face, regardless of whether it's Tee or not.

2. Gail has been the biggest sweetie pie lately. Kicking and squealing whenever I get her from her crib, opening her mouth when I feed her, stealing our hearts with her girlie-sounding "Dadaaas" and "Babaaas" and "Mamaaaas." She's a doll face.



3. We had thirteen adults (including Mike and I) here for dinner last night for our monthly Teams meeting. I haven't seen our house so immaculate in months! I wish I had taken a picture of our table. I don't think there was a spare inch around the table (we had both leafs in as well as a small card table to lengthen it). I've never cooked for such a large group, but it went wonderfully. And we heard delighted squeals from the basement of Jack, whose entertainment for the night was my brother. By the way, instead of a clown for your child's upcoming birthday, we recommend Uncle Tee, whose acts include dragging the kids around on a blanket, pushing them in a large box and spinning coins.

4. Speaking of foodies, I'm thinking about making a food blog in the new year. I've been pretty disciplined in the past few months about planning out healthy meals ahead of time and writing them on a calendar on our fridge. And I'm darned proud of myself for all of the exotic things I've been making. So I might toot my horn a bit to keep me on the ball.

5. We got a web cam so we can say hi to family- as close to in-person as we can get. Mike got it up and running today, and this was our first recorded video:



6. We had our own little family Christmas celebration here this evening. We thought Jack might be a little overwhelmed on Christmas morning, so we opened a few gifts now from Grandma and Grandpa (and a few of our own) to get warmed up.
Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Ryan for all of the nice gifts! We're sorry we won't be able to see you over Christmas this year.





7. Merry Christmas from our family!

Ho Ho Ho and mistletoe and presents for pretty girls

Jen is back from Qatar for Christmas, so we took this rare opportunity to get the four of us together again- for the whole glorious day.

We played our usual grossest drawing game. What can I say?

We made snowflakes while watching Home Alone and A Charlie Brown Christmas.


And I felt totally outdone by each of their handmade gifts. Felted wool purses handcrafted out of old sweaters by Lisa, beautiful hand blown glass ornaments by Juliet and knitted baby items by Jennifer.

Gail sporting her new hat.

Such talent. I'm blown away. A pun!