Family Christmas!

Pete, Lukie, and I will all be heading to Illinois tomorrow to celebrate Christmas with the families-- so we decided to have our own little family Christmas yesterday. Last year, we were stuck at home on Christmas because of my job. We were awakened at 4 a.m., opened presents with Lukie, and then he was napping by 7 a.m. We had our dear friend Rachel over for lasagna, and it was nice to just have a day to the three of us (plus friends). We didn't want to lose that, but we also really love being in Illinois ON Christmas day. So this is a best-of-both-worlds type scenario.

By the way, here's Lukie last Christmas...

What a difference a year makes.

It's been fun trying to figure out what we want to do as far as Christmas traditions go in our little family. My mom always let us unwrap one present on Christmas Eve-- usually our present from our Grandma Dot. I decided that instead, I wanted to have Lukie unwrap his Christmas pajamas every year on Christmas Eve. Probably less fun. I don't care, he'll deal with it. Even though it wasn't really Christmas Eve, we put him in his Christmas PJ's anyway, so all day yesterday, he wore his new red police car/fire engine PJ's.

Lukie slept in until 8 a.m....which he NEVER does, so Peter and I spent the early morning sitting around waiting for him to get up because we were excited. Talk about backward.

Then he woke up happy, but quickly got cranky with us because I wouldn't pick him up...because I was about to lift the blanket off his toy.

All that changed when I revealed his new big boy truck...

He also got a toolbox with a hammer and wooden nails/screws/nuts/bolts for Christmas. Months ago, I saw a deal where I could get it personalized for no extra cost, so it has his name on it. It will be his toolbox when he and daddy go to work on something. Probably lots of birdhouses for Mother's Day. 

We had pancakes for breakfast (someone has gone from refusing to TRY pancakes to being a pancake-eating MACHINE), and then Lukie spent the rest of the day carrying around  the hammer and riding in his truck...while carrying the hammer. The toolbox actually fits perfectly in the bed of his truck...which delights Pete to no end. Lukie can be just like Daddy!!

When it was time for some quiet time, we parked the truck in the living room and Lukie sat in it for an hour watching a movie, just like a drive-in theater. Seriously, he barely moved.

For dinner, we had homemade rolls, clam chowder, and caramel apple pie. Pete's been on me to make clam chowder for (literally) years. I made it once when we lived in our condo, and haven't since then...so it's been at least 2.5 years. It was a good batch-- honestly, I think it was better than the last time I made it.

Our friends Chris and Suzi (as close to family as we have in Tennessee) came over for chowder, and then they gave Lukie a lawn mower toy. Lukas had a VERY manly Christmas...

(The PJ's had to go after being smeared with jam...and yes, he wore those PJ's for 24 hours...because they were adorable and how dirty had he REALLY gotten?)

I showed him how to fill it up with the toy gas can, and he spent the rest of the evening pushing it around, filling up the gas tank, and trying to load it all into the back of the truck. I'd say it was the perfect Christmas. The only way to make it more perfect would be if all our family and friends in Illinois could have joined us... but I'm not sure I have that big of a chowder pot.

I will say, though, as much as I loved our little Christmas, it was kind of bittersweet. We love our friends down here, but it's been hard not being with family. I cooked all day without my Mama, and I listened to Tommy Emanuel guitar Christmas music without my Daddy. It was a good day-- but I sure missed home.

Let's end with a happy note, though!!!

Look at the beautiful new cabinet Pete made me for Christmas! Eeep!!

Christmas. And Christmas. And Another Christmas...and More Christmas.

I'm so far behind, but I'll try over the next few days to catch up on what Lukie and we have been doing over the past few weeks. It's been a busy few weeks of Christmases, sniffles, and travel.

Christmas Day was...nice. It's been harder than usual this year to continue having big holidays where we would usually be with our families, and have to spend them in Tennessee. We have great friends who come over to celebrate with us, and we're so lucky to have them...but it's just not the same as being able to spend time with our families.

That said, we had a nice Christmas morning. And by morning, I mean MORNING. Lukie got us up at 5 a.m. on Christmas Day. Must have been excited. :)

We opened presents-- we only bought him one major present, since he won't remember a whole lot of this particular Christmas. I had noticed that he liked the light-up toys at daycare, so we got him one of those. And an awesome hat. He was asleep again by 7 a.m., drooling on Mommy in the rocking chair.

We had friends over for lasagna and pie later in the day. Lukie was a good boy, but he was suffering from both a sinus and an eye infection that he had gotten over the weekend. We were giving him antibiotics and eye drops, but they made him so mad that he now has a serious aversion to me messing with his face in ANY way.

Poor guy was trying to play, anyway, but you could tell he didn't feel good.

Didn't stop him from eating some tasty bananas and yogurt, though!

I worked the rest of the week, but then on Saturday, we drove to Illinois. I had been dreading the drive to Illinois for months, knowing that it was going to be really hard to get a keep a 6-month-old happy for that long in the car. I have to say, though, that Lukie took the whole drive so well. We left at 5 a.m. and he slept until almost 7. We stopped at a Cracker Barrel to eat and wiggle around a bit, and then I entertained Lukie in the car for another hour or so until he fell asleep again. We made it to Cincinnati by mid-morning and hung out with some of Pete's friends for a few hours, wearing him out and getting a nice visit in at the same time. Kiddo slept a good part of the way to Indianapolis, then fussed at me until Champaign, and then slept the rest of the way home. I was really proud of how well he did-- no major melt-downs the entire way to Illinois!

We had family Christmas with my folks and brother on Sunday, and then had a gigantic family party at my Aunt Julie's. It was so fun and Lukie took the whole thing in stride. He was wonder-baby. He didn't barely cry once at Julie's house. He just spent the whole time playing with his aunt, uncles, cousins, and Grammy Noel.

We hung out with some of my high school friends on Monday...boy was that a trip. I can't believe how far we've all come!

On Tuesday, we drove up to Pete's parents' house, where Lukas met his cousin Eleanor for the first time. Eleanor is just a few weeks older than Lukas. Their meeting was pretty fun!

He got some fun new toys, books, and clothes, including a pretty awesome walrus sweatshirt. I also took a picture of Lukie, Pete, and Pete's dad, Paul. I think there's some definite family resemblance there...especially in the eyebrows and forehead.

We were able to visit Pete's friend Clint, too, and Lukie got a chance to watch the fish in Clint's saltwater aquarium. He wanted to grab the clownfish so badly...watch what happens when they come into the bottom left-hand corner of the video.

We went back to my parents' place as planned on Friday, but on Saturday morning, we couldn't ignore the fact that there was a pretty awful storm bearing down on Illinois. We decided last-minute to drive to Tennessee that day. It was a pretty rough trip, since Lukie was reaching the end of his tolerance for both new environments and car time. He cried more than a quarter of the trip, but he slept from about 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., when we finally got home.

We're glad we left early, given how nasty that storm has turned out in Illinois. Lukie is teething something fierce, and has been pretty crabby lately, but we're glad to have a little time at home with him before I go back to work on Wednesday.

In the midst of all of that, Lukie turned 6 months old on January 3rd. Expect a 6-month-old birthday post pretty soon (and here's a teaser: we recreated one of Pete's childhood pictures over vacation, and the results are AWESOME).

Here are a few more awesome Christmas pictures of Lukie.

Happy Holidays, everybody!

Christmas is Coming...

That title is part of the lyrics of one of my favorite Muppets Christmas songs (well, I'm sure it was a Christmas song before the Muppets...but we live life according to Muppets standards in our house). I think we'll change goose to "baby", though:

Christmas is coming,
The baby's getting fat. 
Please to put a penny in the old man's hat.
If you haven't got a penny, a ha'penny will do.
If you haven't go a ha'penny, 
Then God Bless You!

I always sing the lyrics in Miss Piggy's voice in my head. When we replace goose with baby, though, the whole thing doesn't make sense. Lukie's not GETTING fat. He IS fat. So fat. And has been for a while.

Spreading the Muppet love. Feel free to ignore.

Anyway, I didn't update over the weekend because it's pretty much been nose-to-the-grindstone around here to try to get through to the 28th when we can go home to Illinois, but yesterday, I had the day off! We took a family day, and even though I spend most days there anyway, we came to the Kingsport Public Library to meet Santa Claus and have lunch with Grandma Rebecca!

We got there early and got VIP treatment, I guess- Lukie got Santa all to himself for a few pictures before they opened the doors to the auditorium. A few people had told me that he might freak out, but he gets passed around to other people all the time (which I do on purpose, since I want him to be unafraid of meeting new people). And, I just don't think he's gotten to that "stranger-danger" stage where he acts a little shy or needs Mommy all the time.

Anyway, he did NOT freak out...he had fun!

And apparently, he felt comfortable enough with Santa to do exactly as he does to his Daddy on a relatively regular basis--- pull on his beard. This shot is from Pete's iPhone...but it's pretty priceless. He had to check and make sure his beard was real!

We also had my friend Kyndra take a family photo for us. My hair's all busted. Typical.

He just looks so. danged. fat. in this picture. 

We went out to lunch with Grandma Rebecca after meeting Santa and watching the kids' program. Rebecca is so wonderful to Lukie-- she bought him an outfit, 3 or 4 books (including one my favorites, the "Bear" books- Bear Stays Up for Christmas), a really awesome Christmas sock monkey (which he promptly attempted to eat), and a "Baby's First Christmas" ornament that I will now have to fill with a picture. Probably one of the ones up above.

We also bought Lukie a stocking (actually, that was quite a hunt-- Pete requires all of our stockings to actually look like they could be socks...I think it's a historical accuracy thing) and a toy. I don't overbuy toys for him, but I noticed he liked the light-up ones at daycare, so we got him a light-up toy that plays music when he pushes on the buttons. Hopefully he'll like it. Mostly we just wanted to open something with him on Christmas morning.

In other news, Lukie is the worst sleeper ever...but I'm blaming it on teething. I can feel the bump on his bottom gums and he's rubbing everything and anything on there to try to cut through. For the last 3 nights, he's been up every hour/hour and a half unless he has Tylenol, and even then we've only gotten 2-hour stretches out of him. He's not really coordinated enough to hold teethers to his mouth for very long without dropping them on the ground. We haven't tried Orajel yet, but I'm just not a huge fan of medicating him in the first place. I don't know. We'll see. Mommy's so tired, but I keep telling myself it's a phase and as soon as those teeth pop out, it'll hopefully get better. Good Lord, I hope it gets better!

It's a good thing he's cute in the morning.

Also, he's getting fun...It used to terrify him when Pete would swing him around, but now we have a baby who loves to be bounced, tossed (very gently--still a little young), danced with, spun...anything involving fast motions (but not too fast...that results in serious upchucking, even if he's happy while doing the upchucking).

Please excuse Pete's discussion of Lukie's baby chunk. It's a little indecorous.