Christmas 2008

This holiday season was marked with family, food, illness and a few good games of Scrabble. We'd planned to spend two days in Turlock to celebrate an early Christmas with my extended family. Our trip was extended to honor Garett's grandmother, Nonni, who passed away two weeks before her 91st birthday. It was a gift to get to get to spend some time with more of our family than we'd expected to see. Instead of driving back to San Luis Obispo following the service, we decided to spend Christmas in Turlock to have a traditional Swedish meal with my Grandpa. We then spent a few days in Morro Bay with my parents and brother before finally coming home on Saturday. After my fourth rotation of the same outfit, I was glad to come home.

Perhaps my favorite moment during my time in Turlock was the surprisingly bad combination of my brother's jeans and my parent's new white leather couch and ensuing hilarity . See, the jeans bled on the porous couch so he was required to take off his pants each time he sat on the couch. He soon found some "couch pants" that he could use if and when he wanted to watch television or a movie or just hang out with the family. My folks still don't have a long term plan for how to avoid getting denim stains on the couch so dark jeans are not recommended if you're invited to their home in the near future and prefer to keep your pants on. Fortunately Wyatt's jean overalls passed the test.

My other favorite part of the holiday week was playing Scrabble with my Grandpa. He is stiff competition and the king of vocabulary which makes my double victory all the more sweet. You might think it's uncool to tout a win given my Grandpa's kind demeanor and elevated age but, seriously, I can count on one hand how many times I've beat him and it did feel good.

Wyatt learned a few new things while we were gone, like how mimic his Grandpa and eat persimmons. He's still doing an army crawl and now he's focusing on speed. He got to play with a few new cousins and the picture below displays his friendly social skills. I suppose there must have been a few other happenings over the holiday week but I think I missed them due to being sick. Garett and I are still fighting a horrible cough and finally got cough syrup with codeine from the doctor this afternoon to hopefully help us sleep tonight. In fact, I did not take one of this photos in this post. All three of these are courtesy of my brother Josh.I'm still hoping to send out Christmas cards and am trying not to feel guilty about being perpetually behind. If you're reading this and have moved recently (Jana, I'm thinking of you.), please post a comment with your address or email it directly to me. Thanks!

Thanksgiving 2008

Garett, Wyatt and I spent Thanksgiving with his sister and brother in law in Visalia and then drove up to the Portland area to visit friends. It was a long overdue vacation with a few highlights. One such highlight was Wyatt's first trip down a slide.The time we spent with our family was the best. We enjoyed fantastic food and watched holiday movies while Wyatt soaked in being the center of attention. The day after creating an unbelievably tasty Thanksgiving meal, my brother in law Joe prepared Roasted Whole Baby Pumpkins. Garett enjoyed not one but two of these decadent treats.

We then took two days to drive up to the Portland area to visit the Hsiehs. The best moment of the drive was our lunch stop at the Wildflower Cafe in a small town in southern Oregon called Cottage Grove. We met Marjory, a nearly 96 year old woman, who, by the end of lunch, was putting her foot behind her head to show us her flexibility thanks to her ballet dancing background. She was a kick and particularly fond of Wyatt. I love the adventure of a road trip, not knowing where we'll stop or who we'll meet along the way. This is a photo of the spot where we met Marjory and enjoyed a reuban sandwich.

We spent a whole week with Ben, Rebekah and Ava and hopefully did not wear out our welcome. It was good to be with friends, especially ones that you just can't get enough of. Ava is two years old and an absolute delight. In the photo below, Garett is reading her a book. I wish she was standing up because this outfit is just about the cutest one I've ever seen.

Finally, I love the look on Wyatt's face in this picture. He's all bundled up for a walk (thanks, Weyels, for the loaner umbrella stroller!) and not too happy about the hat situation.