Last Post of '08

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2008 sure did seem to fly by, especially the last few weeks. We have quite a few pictures for you to see revolving around Christmas. Jake had an awesome time opening gifts on Christmas Eve, but by the time Christmas Day rolled around, it proved to be a bit too much for him. Add to that a new medication for a cough, and we had a pretty fussy little boy.

Jake was happy that he got the "blue present" that he asked Santa for. He also loves all his new Mickey stuff as well. His Mickey swag now includes stuffed animals, shirts, pajamas, a robe, socks, toys, and underwear! Luckily, my prediction that he would be sick of Mickey before Christmas arrived did NOT come true.

We all enjoyed spending time with both our families for Christmas like we luckily get to do every year. With where Christmas fell, this year, we also got to add in a party for Maiya's second birthday. If you add her mom's birthday coming up the following week, she's probably going to think you get to open presents every week from now on!

We hope that everyone has a safe and happy New Year and we hope to see you back at the Annex in '09!

It's Beginning To Look A Lot...

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Over the past week, we've been able to get the house decorated for Christmas and really get into the holiday spirit.

Last Friday, we got the tree setup while Jake was asleep. That let us surprise him, and then also open our ornaments the following day to get those hung.

We spent the rest of the weekend getting all the other stuff put out along with getting the outside lights run. We also had to spend quite a bit of time reminding Jake how much he liked the animatronic decorations (Frosty, Rudolph, Santa Homer) and convincing him that he doesn't need to be scared of them. Halloween really did a number on him this year! But, just a week later, he can't walk past Santa Homer without punching the button and hoping for Homer's version of Jingle Bells. He still calls Rudolph "that boy" which is what he called the witch that popped out of the pumpkin at Halloween and then the pilgrim statues over Thanksgiving at Meme's house. I don't think it's a term of endearment in his book!

Michele spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen baking cookies. Jake really likes to help out with mixing batter, decorating, and, of course, eating them.

The snow has finally started to hit Livonia. Mark said he had much more snow this week just in Northville, and I know our folks have had a good share already up in Fenton and Grand Blanc.

Unfortunately, that means we'll likely NOT be making the trip over for Helena's Baptism. Michele already has several plans with the girls in line for the next few weeks, so I'm sure she'll make up for it. We are all getting over some minor colds any way, so it might be nice to have a day to kick back and relax.

Jake realized we hadn't watched any football tonight on the way home from Church, so I'll have to find a game for him to watch while the Lions are blacked out again.

Thanksgiving Feasts

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We got to celebrate Thanksgiving twice this year. We started off the weekend before, when Jen and Bret hosted a dinner at their house. Adam, Erica, and Haven joined in along with Harlen, Jessi, Isabelle, and Helena. Steve, Melissa, and Jack had to miss out, unfortunately, as their family had come down with colds. We fried a turkey which turned out pretty good, and nothing exploded, so we deemed that event a success. The kids all seemed to have a good time playing with each other... at least when they weren't upset because someone was "sharing" their toys.

Then, before heading up to Grand Blanc to MPnA's house for Thanksgiving dinner, we headed out to the Detroit parade for the first time. Michele's mom picked up Alison on her way down on Wednesday night and we all spent the night in Livonia. Then, Thursday morning, we all got up early to head downtown. It was pretty cold, but the wind wasn't blowing much so it didn't seem that bad. We all had a lot of fun. After the parade, we headed north where all of the Anderson side of the family got together to watch the football games and have a delicious meal.

We hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving celebrations as much as we did. We have a lot to be thankful for.

Reunited

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It was really hard to type that title without feeling a little sappy.

Tonight, we got to test out our new web cam as we talked to the Pruss family. Neither Michele or I had done much, if any, video chatting since back when she went to Korea. The technology has come a long way, and I'm sure having an Internet connection that is 100 times faster helps a lot too.

Jake just recently seems to, finally, understand that Elle lives in a new house, so it was really great to see all of them again and be able to show Jake her new home. Jake and Elle both got a kick out of waving and screaching at each other. We even got to see Zack walking like he was practically a toddler himself. It sounds like things are going very well for them down in St. Louis. We can't wait to find a time to get down to visit them in person.

Fall One Weekend... Winter the Next

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You've got to love Michigan weather. A week ago, I got in nine holes of golf. Tonight, Michele and Jake made a snowman.

Here are few photos from the course of about a week showing a fun fall afternoon, followed by a rainy evening, and then a snowy day.

To think we were all in swimsuits yesterday. Granted, we were swimming and playing at the Rec Center. Jake got to ride down the water slide for the first time, and he LOVED it. Out of the blue, last week, he started asking to go swimming. He seemed to remember a lot of the techniques that he learned during swim classes.