O Tannenabaum

After returning from Thanksgiving with a car full of Christmas gifts from my mom, we decided that we'd better set up the Christmas Tree so we'd have someplace to put them. We loaded up the ipod with Christmas tunes, heated some cinnamon sticks and spices on the stove to appease our olfactory systems, and pulled out the decorations. I found a few pictures from our first Christmas with Charlton that I'll also post. He was almost six months when we took these and just that day began to be able to sit up on his own. Behold the Joys of the Season.

Charlton's first Christmas

Thanksgiving Part II: John's house & Michelle

On Saturday we headed out to see John & Erin's new house. It is so great and I am too jealous! Its 3000! sq feet and at the end of a long drive on 4 acres in the woods of Missouri. It seems like you are in the wilderness but you are only about 15 minutes from every imaginable amenity. He got a fantastic deal -- about 50K off appraisal price. He is a meticulous carpenter and is in the process of fixing it up. Eventually he is going to build a studio next to the house so he can have his own glass blowing shop. The first floor has three bedroom and a large kitchen, dining area and living space. It also has a huge mud/wash room that connects to a garage. He's going to pull up the carpet and lay wood floors and knock off one of the kitchen walls so to open to the dining room, as well as update the bathrooms and fixtures. He has already started on the basement which contains another bedroom and a big living area as well as a gigantic storage space. He's already torn out two walls and started building others to expand the living space and the bathroom to include a shower. The basement walks out into the large yard. Above the walkout is the deck that he is rebuilding and making more sturdy as it is on the side of a hill.

Charlton especially had a fun time visiting. He loves the outdoors, the woods, leaves, the dogs, "helping" John with repairs, and especially riding Uncle John's motorbikes. (PS: Don't you just love John's hair in these pics!).

After John's, we went over to visit with Michelle and the girls. We had Adam with us as he had spent the night at Grammi's. After a rousing game of Geography we headed out to old town St. Charles. It was so lovely. Its situated right on the river and the main street is full of quaint shops all decorated for Christmas. There were period costumed carolers walking around filling our ears with Yuletide Joy while we munched on homemade cookies and hot cider. When we returned to Michelle's we ate chicken noodle soup and watched Jeff & Michelle's wedding video from 20! years ago. A good time was had by all.

Thanksgiving Part I: Justin & the Arch

We had a great Thanksgiving! We traveled to Kentucky and then on to St. Louis to visit with family. Its been a long time since I spent Thanksgiving with all my cousins and it was a blast. The first day, we visited Rob's brother Justin who is in medical school at SLU. Charlton had too much fun with Uncle Justin. We walked over to Lafayette Park and Charlton ran around, tried to feed the ducks rocks and hugged some random kid. After the park we headed over to the Bread Company for dinner and then ran Justin over to the airport so he could catch his flight to Arizona.

After dropping Justin off, we headed over to my grandma's house and stayed there a few days and celebrated Thanksgiving. We started off T-day by going to the Kirkwood-Webster High School football game with my cousin Lori and her three kids. When I was growing up we use to go to this game every year that my cousins lived in St. Louis. I have very fond memories of those times, not any memories of the games but memories of being with my cousins so I was excited to go. Lori's family lives in Webster so that is who we were rooting for, and they won. Charlton had a blast with Bella (8) and Solomon (5), who are so sweet and play so kindly with him

After the game we headed back to Grammi's for dinner. John and Erin arrived first, and over the next 30 minutes everyone else arrived, 31 of us altogether. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures of this part. I guess we were too excited with visiting that we forgot about the camera. Hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on some of the pics Aunt Becky took and can post them later. In the meantime, let me just tell you that we feasted! Grammi and Aunt Kathy did a fabulous job and dinner was scrumptous, the tables were beautifully set and decorated, and the atmosphere was right out of a Charles Dickens novel. Needless to say we had a great time.

After dinner we played a huge game of Bunko with teams and table switching. There were 6 teams of 4 each with the losers rotating tables. AK organized it and there were prizes and everything. The winners of each round picked a wrapped present and the overall winners would win the grand prize, a wooden super Scrabble edition that included 7 other games. My cousin Kim and I were a team and while I shouldn't brag, I have to say we were AWESOME! Even with her holding baby Jason the whole time. When all was tallied up we were in a tie with Rob and Aunt Becky so we had to have a Bunko Roll-off to determine the champion. I knew it would be hotly contested as they were a menacing foe but I felt confident we would win. I stretched my fingers and prepared myself mentally for the game. Rob had that determined, somewhat dubious look in his eye that told me there would be no mercy. AB started the roll. Rob and AB took an early lead but then Kim came back with an incredible roll and it was tied 5-5. The dice were moving from player to player with quicker and quicker speed and the score was tight, with the teams alternating the lead by 1 or 2 points. The dice ended up back with AB and she rolled a couple sixes. They were at 19 and we were at 18. She rolled again and I felt as if time were in slow motion. I watched with heated anticipation while the dice bounced across the table, finally settling with a score of two sixes, a three and a two. It was over. They had won. And boy did Rob let me know it. Still, I couldn't help but smile because it was kinda a half win for me since Rob won the grand prize and I still get to play with the fancy Scrabble.

The day after Thanksgiving we went to the top of the Arch. Rob had never been up there and really wanted to go. Apparently Paul and Lisa (who were staying at Aunt Becky's) had the same idea and we saw them there. There is a small museum there about the westward expansion which we toured before we made our way to the top. Charlton thought it was so fun! And he left with a miniature Arch thanks to Grandma V.

After the Arch we went home and Charlton and I napped while the others went to a movie. When they returned we ordered pizza and played Scrabble, which the shark Grammi won as usual. We always have such a wonderful time at Grammi's, especially the kids. She has all kinds of treasures in her house and actually allows the kids to play with them. She has few kid friendly things too, like tons of toys and a stuffed dragon that sits on the back of her couch, begging kids into his lair.