A Christmas Story

Preface

I attempted to follow Reader's Digest's lead and condense the last month into one concise package, with a neatly-tied bow. Turns out that woman-of-few-words is not the moniker for me. At least I didn't post every photo - for the non-abridged version, refer to my full holiday album, which I made public on Facebook. I hoped to not get into this habit, but the travel, illnesses, and craziness of December seemed to warrant it this time.

Chapter One: Advent

For those of you not indoctrinated by "The Church", Advent is a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas. It's only supposed to last 4 weeks, but I could have used 4 years this time! Miles and I were both sick (me twice - once with bronchitis and again with mystery stomach bug), so that made getting things ready for the big day difficult. Throw in chaos at work for both me and Jason, plus out-of-state traveling, and that made total preparation next to impossible. I was definitely thanking Jesus though...for Amazon.com Super Saver Shipping and Z-Pack antibiotics!

Miles went to the doc during this time as a totally healthy boy for his 18-month appointment. The best pre-Christmas present he could get - no shots! His stats were 27 pounds (75%) and 32 inches (50%). According to their records, he didn't grow taller from last time, but we're pretty sure they just measured wrong last visit...especially since the official Sharpie tick marks in his closet wall show a growth of a couple inches!

We did manage to find time for a couple fun things. Miles had fun with Granny while we parents went to the Colts-Titans game with Grandpa and Aunt Ashley:



Of course, we had to make time to put up the tree and break out the other Christmas decorations. Miles was happy about his reunion with his talking Christmas bear:



Chapter Two: Christmas Eve

We started the day by visiting Great Uncle Billy and Cathy. Miles was overjoyed to receive his first gift of the season...a ball! It's amazing how he can still be so excited after receiving his 47th ball.

We continued our "traditions" for the day as well...two years in a row makes it a tradition, right? Miles wasn't exactly the most well-behaved child at church, but he fit right in with the gaggle of kids at the early service. We were slightly miffed when Miles told his dad "Beep beep" (translation: get out of my way) in the middle of one of the prayers - but that was nothing compared to the kid a couple rows up who announced to his entire family that he had gas. Our pickins were slim for Christmas Eve dinner, so we stopped off at the Ponderosa. We then headed home to open up one gift a piece, put out cookies for Santa, and finally to go to sleep before Santa came.




Chapter Three: The Fat Man Cometh

Some call him Santa - Miles prefers to call him HoHo. It took us a little while to realize Santa had come at first. Miles decided to give us parents the best Christmas present of all - sleeping in! He woke at his normal time - around 6:00 - murmuring undecipherably, which is different than his normal scream of "Mimi! Daddy! Pup!". Just as I noted to Jason that he was singing Christmas carols, the tunes stopped and he went back to sleep for almost another two hours!

When Miles finally woke up, he insisted on eating breakfast with his present from the day before - talking Elmo. We eventually wandered into the family room when Miles noticed some goodies sticking out of his stocking. It was hard to pull him away from the excitement of the fruit snacks and plastic vegetables he received, but we finally got him started on the stash from Santa.



Miles had so much fun ripping the paper off his loot, especially the giant box his wagon came in. He liked most of his gifts but was especially smitten with the pint-sized Colts folding chair. Who woulda thunk it? He got to continue tearing through gifts when Grammy and Grandpa and Nana and Papa arrived that afternoon. He even helped Mommy and Daddy open their presents and was confused why he couldn't open all the gifts under the tree. The seven of us finished off the day with a true "Christmas Story" meal - Chinese! Fa-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra! I think Grammy brought enough Chinese food to feed most of China, so we were stuffed the whole night.


Chapter Four: Two Turtle Doves

The next round of Christmas came when the aunts and uncles descended upon our house for Family Christmas Part 2. Baby Lyla spent her first Christmas a sick girl, but we were fortunate enough that she was able to drag her parents up from Lexington to be with us. Aunt Kat, and the Uncles Vinny, Craig, and Dean all came from Ohio. It was a crazy day but so much fun to have everyone in one place...and even better that we didn't have to travel ourselves!




Chapter Five: Three French Hens

We got to keep the Kolbs for an extra day thanks to the bad roads. Miles spent lots and lots of time commenting on the "SSSSSSSSnow".

We also got a visit from the Kahls for a few hours that day. On his fourth day in a row of opening gifts, Miles had it down pat. No pics yet, but Miles loves his giant school bus...from the outside. He still needs to work up the courage to actually get in it yet.



Chapter Six: Auld Lang Syne

We loaded up the ol' Ford with four adults, a toddler, and two dogs to head down to the Kentucky Kahls for the New Year's holiday. Miles had a fantastic time hanging out with Granny and Aunt Ashley at the WKU basketball game while the rest of us headed to Nashville for New Year's Eve. Apparently, AA also worked with Miles all night long on this dance routine:

We spent all day on New Year's Day eating sauerkraut and watching football...most notably a win by the Buckeyes! We even converted Aunt Ashley for the day:



Epilogue

For those of you that actually made it this far...thank you! We are so blessed to have so much family and fun times to fill such a long post. Happy 2010!