He does exist!

Santa does exist!  It may have been years since either of us was visited by the big man in red, but we know he exists because he was in our house last night and he left a bounty of gifts for little Calvin!  He graced our sitting room with the evidence of his visit in the tradition of the Hiller family - a full stocking and a handful of special gifts left unwrapped by the tree.  The stocking itself was a big hit with Calvin, who thought emptying it was more fun than the trinkets he pulled out from inside (including, his own soft cell phone and camera so he can be just like mommy and daddy).  He did get a kick out of the learning home (read: door with lots of kiddy gadgets) that Santa left, though, and his parents really enjoyed that one, too. 

And after a quick overview of Santa's drop, we headed to the Hiller household for a Christmas morning including stockings, great food, and gifts all around.  We had a wonderful time and Calvin was on his very best behavior - he just loved all the activity and all the interesting boxes and toys (even the ones that didn't belong to him).  The best gift we got that morning?  Calvin took both of his normal naps (9-11 and 1-3) while we were there without any difficulties - yay!

We finished off the day with a Christmas evening at the Ophoff household, including a beautiful dinner and dessert.  We had a wonderful time opening gifts in front of the fire there and, again, Calvin was really on his best behavior.  The best gift we got that evening?  Calvin took his normal evening nap without trouble - yay (do you see a pattern here?)!  We had started the holiday expecting to deal with the stresses of a long and grueling day away from home, and the consequences of a fussy and over tired baby, and we were pleasantly surprised and pleased to return home with a very happy infant.  Calvin really revelled in the attention and the stimulation of the day and that is more than we could have every hoped for, and his happiness was the best gift we could have asked for.  It was a true Christmas miracle!

Santa really isn't that scary

We really started to get into the spirit of things today.  Jon accompanied Christmas songs for the PBS telethon (five, or at least one, minutes of fame), and when he got home we sat ourselves down and took Christmas pictures.  We will still go in and have professional ones done, but we wanted to have some to make a Christmas card with, so we had to try some on our own.  It is amazingly difficult to get a baby to look at a camera when there is no person behind it!  This is the first year that our Christmas pictures have not included the dogs, but what are you going to do?  Only so much drool will fit in one snapshot.  Overall the pictures turned out fairly nicely, and you can see them (or at least the ones that won't be going on the Christmas card), and some portraits taken earlier in the week, in our Christmas Photo Shoot album (don't laugh - they're not professional, and PhotoShop is our friend, but we only had time to fix some of them).

And what is more Christmassy (yes, that is a word) than the torture of sitting still in awkward positions for family photos?  Why, that yearly visit to Santa Claus (you'll shoot your eye out...ho ho ho), so after the picture taking episode we packed him up and headed to the mall for his inaugural visit with the fat man in red.  Thankfully Calvin loves people and is not old enough yet to be worried about the bearded anomaly, unlike the two year old screamer behind us in line.  We only got a couple quick pictures, and we are too lazy to scan the picture they gave us, so this is all we have to show for the trip right now, but we'd say it was successful.  This whole first Christmas thing sure is wonderful!

A tree in the house!

 The tree is up and decorated, the  lights are up in the bedrooms, and the animated polar bear is up on our front porch.  We got all of this done during the beautiful fall weather we've had the past week - 50, even 60, degrees and sunny (tell that to Steve who just experienced a record snowfall in Seattle) - but did we get any of our outdoor decorating done?  Noooooo.  Well, the bear, but he doesn't really count, since all you have to do is lean out the front door to set him up and plug him in with a timer.  So now that it's 40, even 30, degrees and rain/snowing all we have left is to put the outdoor decorations up.  Good thinking on our part.  Here's the tree, in any case.  We sure are enjoying it.  And there is something incredibly funny about a little boy and a very big tree...

 

A tree in the house????

That would be Calvin's reaction to the Scotch Pine that is now standing in our great room.  Well, actually he doesn't seem all that concerned about it; curious, maybe, but not concerned.  In fact, our whole tree tradition seems a little lost on him.  As per tradition we got up this morning and joined Cortney's family for breakfast before driving way out into the "country" to hunt Christmas trees.  Calvin seemed to enjoy the breakfast part just fine, and would probably have been fine with the tree part, too, except that he was extremely sleepy through the whole ordeal.  We did find the perfect Christmas tree, which somehow seemed important for this milestone holiday, even though Calvin won't care a lick (but we do, so we'll post a picture as soon as we get it decorated).  We brought it home and put it up and Calvin didn't seem one bit disturbed.  He even tried touching it and wasn't put off, although he seemed disappointed that we would let him put neither the very first ornament (a giraffe) in his collection from his gram nor the tree in his mouth!  Tough love.  The FANTASTIC news is that he has had no trouble eating today at all! And, though his voice is still hoarse (which makes him sound so sad and pitiful!) from this bout with the reflux, we really think he is on his way back to "normal."  He even slept through the night last night, something he hasn't done since the doctors messed with his medicine over two weeks ago.  ARGH.

Happy...Black Friday?

Okay, that just sounds wrong.  We understand the premise, but it's a rather dark moniker for a fairly cheerful day (fairly being the operative word here - we're sure it's not cheerful if you are getting trampled in the opening lines at some super store).  We have always enjoyed the day after Thanksgiving.  In our home it is the start of the Christmas season and traditionally we have spent the early part of the day shopping and the latter part decorating followed by a nice dinner.   We did things a little backwards this year, but we still got all the major ingredients in there.  And having Calvin sure has added a lot to the spirit of the season.  If nothing else it added the not-to-be-missed impromptu visit to the pediatrician's office over a holiday because, of course, that is when children opt to get sick.  Luckily Calvin does not appear to be sick in a contagious kind of way, but he sure has been struggling with his reflux over the past few weeks.  We thought to head off any necessary holiday doctor visits with the appointment we made earlier in the week, but even after several days of the new medication in his cereal he was really going downhill and was having all kinds of trouble eating.  After this morning's appointment we will be returning to the first medication - the one that was working before we were told to stop it (don't get us started).  We are praying that this will make a difference soon, and it might already have - he was full of smiles for all his adoring fans as we traversed the crowded mall with Curtis in this afternoon!  So, happy black Friday!