Friday, December 30, 2011

Christmas Day 2011

Christmas morning was a lot of fun. Those kids must have been good this year, because there was so many presents from Santa he had to put them all in the back room of the house! The kids raced down the stairs to see what he'd brought. Waiting for them was a Little Mermaid bike for Mikayla, an interactive Chuggington train set, some books and clothes, and some very full stockings.

After breakfast, the onslaught of presents began. A few highlights of the 3.5+ hour unwrapping included: sleds for each of the kids, Mikayla's princess hut, Grandma opening her Kindle like a wild wildebeest, Aunt Shell opening clues to the locations of her gifts (and therefore hunting for them) to curtail early snooping, Dudley's "inconvenient" recognition of wrapping paper for a gift not from him and Michelle, and opening a basket full of U of M stuff.

Unfortunately Kristi had come down with something the morning of Christmas Eve. It was serious enough that other than the ride from Michigan to Ohio, she was in bed all day both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. A short visit to the ER on Sunday afternoon helped a bit because she was up and moving on Monday and able to finally open her presents and head back home later that day. However, Tuesday morning she was feeling miserable again and headed back to Fremont by herself to see her doctor. Since then Kristi was back in the ER overnight for observation on Tuesday night but was subjected to a few (lengthy) imaging tests Thursday morning. She is staying in Fremont with the parents this week and seems in better spirits, but we won't know the results of the tests until next Tuesday at the earliest. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers with her. Hopefully this will all be over soon with a diagnosis. In the meantime, the kids and I are looking forward to Mommy coming home tomorrow morning! 

In any case, below are a smattering of pictures taken on Christmas day. The rest of the pictures and videos can be found in the Christmas 2001 Album










































Night Before The Dawn Before the Dawn Before The Day of Christmas

This year we had planned on going to Ohio for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. So having sent the majority of our presents for the Kosakowski's ahead earlier in the week, we spent the night before Christmas Eve opening presents from the rest of the friends and family that we wouldn't get a chance to see in the coming days (and to prevent transporting even MORE toys back from Fremont).

The kids had a blast! Every box had to be opened; every toy played with; every article of clothing worn. As soon as Mikayla opened a new shirt or PJs, without hesitation she'd start taking her clothes off right on the spot. Noah couldn't stop pushing buttons on his toys and wanted to play with the foam basketballs and footballs right away.

A big Thank You from the bottom of our hearts to everyone for your generous gifts. We feel truly blessed to have our friends and family in our lives and greatly value the support that you've given us over the last year. We love each and every one of you and hope to see more of you all in the next year.

Below are a sampling of most of the pictures from opening presents at home. The rest of the pictures can be found in the Christmas Eve Eve 2011 Album.

The Christmas Tree.
Yes, it's fake. Yes, we live in Michigan. Yes, we'll get a real one next year.







"What does this button do?"


More Chuggington trains!


Mommy fighting the toy packaging and cursing the toy packing industry



"Look Meee !!!"










Aftermath.