Holiday Rundown

We're going to travel back in time all the way to Thanksgiving.

My sister, Lissa, brother-in-law, Heath, and their puppy, Coalie came to stay with us for about a week. I was a little stressed to have the puppy in the house... it's no surprise I'm no dog person. Not only am I not a dog person, but I'm generally afraid of most dogs and don't know how to interact with them. But then add to the pot that I had an infant who was just learning to crawl all around the floor, and I was a bit neurotic. But Coalie is good natured and very well behaved. She only pooped in our house once I was told ;-) and got all of her energy out running around my parent's yard and killing birds over there :-D

The main reason the Kings were in town was to celebrate their baby shower that us Wiedmeyer gals threw for them the Saturday before Thanksgiving. Playing off of their last name, and the fact that the gender was a surprise, we played up the Princess/Prince theme.  There was a diaper cake castle, tables themed with frog (prince) stuffed animals and bath items, sand castle toys, prince/princess pacifiers, crowns and tiaras! As you can imagine, it was above and beyond your standard shower. Despite the holidays, there was a fantastic turn out of friends and family. Lissa's high school and college girlfriends traveled long distances to help celebrate, which I know meant a lot since it has been a long time since they have all been together. They got tons of wonderful gifts. One that I am most jealous of is a kitchy little end table that my mom picked off of a curb and hand painted in the colors of the baby's nursery.  By the end of the party, Heath's pick-up and our Flex were full with tons of baby goodies!

I had to work on Thanksgiving, but luckily had a smaller caseload which was only about four hours worth of work. In the late afternoon, we all went to my Uncle Johns, Aunt Janes and Cousin Maya's house to celebrate Thanksgiving. My Aunt Ann, Uncle Rick, and cousins Daniel and Joshua were also there along with our grandparents. It was Avett's first thanksgiving. He was dressed in a shirt that said "gobble till you wobble." And I think he was just about gobbled up by everyone there!

That evening, I started coming down with laryngitis. It stuck with me for five days. Made for a few exhausting days at work.

 On December 6th (8 days late), my first nephew was born! My sister-in-law, Ashley and her husband, Jesse welcomed their son Maxwell into the world. He is chunky, handsome, and healthy!

Christmas this year was busy.  We planned to celebrate Christmas at the Bollwahns this year. I put in my request to have the holiday off wayyy wayyyyyy wayyyyyyy wayyyyyyyyy back in February. It wasn't approved. Thus, I had to rearrange my work schedule throughout the week to make it work. That said, I worked the Sunday beforehand through Wednesday (Christmas Eve). I had about 3.5 hours of work and then we left for MI as soon as we could after that. The drive over was slow going, but the important thing was that we made it. Ashley and Jesse made it down with their two-week old son. Their travel was much slower going then ours. But we were so thrilled to be together and to meet our nephew for the first time. Avett and Maxwell even had matching outfits! There to also join in on the family fun was Great Grandma Mickey. She spends her winters in Arizona, but decided to come back so that she could celebrate Christmas with her 2014 grandbabies. On Christmas, we woke up and opened presents as a family. Avett and Maxwell were both spoiled greatly. The living room was filled with presents. One of our favorite presents was a Little Rider's tricycle that Avy got from his Uncle Brandon and Aunt Katie. In the afternoon, Bryce's family came over for food and family time!  Friday, we woke up to a chilly house because the Furnace broke. But Bryce was on it and we weren't without heat for long. It did; however, keep us kind of house bound as we waited for life to get back to normal. But one calm day in a week of busy-ness is just what we needed. On Saturday, we celebrated Christmas with Cindy's side of the family. There are more kids on this side and thus more gift opening! It was my first Christmas that I actually celebrated with the Bollwahns (and as a Bollwahn). I was so happy we were able to make it work. I had to be back for (3.5 hours of) work on Sunday, so on Saturday evening we headed for home.

During the week, my work hours kept elevating at a fast rate!  I had to work on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Aaron fortunately had New Year's Eve off. He had an awesome dinner planned. Per our usual routine, Aaron made us Salmon Encrute (I do not know how to spell that). Due to my late hours, we had just enough time to enjoy our meal with a glass of champagne before we passed out on the couch by 8:30. -- Crazy parents!

We finally got to celebrate Christmas with my family that following Saturday (which was my 7th day of working, grrrr). We went to my mom and dad's where my sister, Laura and her boyfriend, Woody surprised us with a meal of crab legs and shrimp. I was tending to the baby which made Aaron responsible for cracking all of my crab legs for me. I gave it one try and those buggers are prickly, so that worked out nicely in my favor. It was my first time having crab, and I was not disappointed. Avett had a billion presents to get through. We opened them lickity split because the bugger was tired and ready for bed. He got tons of adorable outfits -- seriously, this kid should be a baby model. He got a zoo pass from my parents, which we are so greatly excited about! He got a little airplane that has lights and noises and boy-oh-boy does Avy like to pilot it! Although, recently, he thinks its more fun to get off of his plane, and stand next to it while he presses the buttons. He got lego cars and a car that pops balls into the air, and he got some of those things that the doctor office always has where you have to slide beads along those curvy wires. Santa brought him one of those colorful rubber floor mats... so Avett now has his own little play room set up in the spare room. After Avett's presents were opened and dinner was eaten, the adults opened presents. Lissa was able to join us via Skype. And when we were all done opening presents, we stuffed ourselves to the brim with desserts!

It was a busy holiday season but so enjoyable. We are so grateful to have been able to get so much family time in over the weeks!!! There is no way to express how important our family is to us. And with so much distance between us, we really were so lucky to be able to see ALL of our family members at least once throughout the season!