Holidays 2007

On Sat Dec 15th, we celebrated Chanukah with Ali's Dad and Sue. Ali's brother, Andrew, and sister-in-law, Treva, were also there. And of course the kids, Kendra and Twila, had loads of fun with Sarah and Nicholas. The kids played with their new toys; the big hit was probably a wack-a-mole game that even Nicholas got into.

On Sun Dec 16th, we hosted a Cookie Party at our house. Ali was baking cookies just about all day. We had plenty of helpers to decorate all the sugar cookies; Sarah loaded hers up with plenty of icing and sprinkles. We also decorated big gingerbread cookies, and made a gingerbread manger scene (once we figured out which cookie was Mary).

On Tue Dec 18th, David's parents came down for a service for David's cousin John at the Maryland State House; read more about it here.

On Wed Dec 19th, Sarah and the kids from her school sang in the NASA Goddard Holiday Concert. Mom-Mom and Poppy came onto the center to see and listen to her sing.

On Sun Dec 23rd, we went to Grandma's church to listen to her sing in the choir. After that, we went to Andrew and Treva's to open Christmas presents and have dinner.

On Mon Dec 24th, we went to the children's vigil Mass at St. Pius with the Olsens. The bishop was there, but Sarah really liked the Christmas angels and shepherds during the pageant.

This morning at 1:00am, Nicholas must have heard some reindeer on the roof, because he woke up and wouldn't go back to sleep for a half-hour. Sarah slept right through it, and even let us sleep until 7:15am! Sarah had so much fun either opening her gifts or handing them out to others; Nicholas just sat there and played with a candy cane. We're having Grandma and Papa Bob and the Olsens over for dinner later today.

Boogie Woogie

We took Nicholas back to the doctor on Tuesday because he was sounding worse instead of better. His latest diagnosis - walking pneumonia. The little boy can't even crawl yet and he's got walking pneumonia! :) He now has to use a nebulizer four times a day; he kind of likes it and tries to lick the inhaler. He's also got new antibiotics, and has been doing slowly better the last couple of days. Thankfully, he's also still sleeping through the night. David's been working from home for most of the week, when Nicholas is quiet enough at least.

Snow and Cold

On Wednesday the 5th, we got about 4" of snow. It started just before dawn and lasted until the late evening. Schools and work went on as normal, but it took David an extra half-hour to get to NASA with all the traffic. But he decided to leave work an hour early to beat the traffic home, and he and Sarah had fun playing in the backyard before it got dark. They threw snowballs and David pulled Sarah around in the sled. Nicholas didn't get to go outside, as he was feeling a little sick.

(note: Only parents should read the next paragraph. Also, don't eat either during or after reading it. You'll thank us later.)

On Friday, Nicholas went home from day care early with a fever. As he'd been at least blowing snot on and off for almost 2 weeks, we decided to take him to the doctor. Sure enough, he has a sinus infection and an ear infection. So far today, he threw up ALL OVER Alison and later he pooped diarrhea so much that it went up the back of his shirt almost up to his neck. He's had a bath and is all clean, but we're still washing his clothes and his chair he was sitting on.

November pictures

The pictures of the kids from November are on their picture page. There's pictures of Sarah at ballet, Sarah with her classmates during "Recycle Day" at NASA (including a movie of them singing), Nicholas belly-surfing on the floor, and the kids with Santa. They visited Santa on the Sunday after Thanksgiving at the Bowie Railroad Museum - which also happened to be the same day as a trainspotting event. The Sunday after Thanksgiving is Amtrak's busiest year, and we watched the trains speed by for a couple of hours while eating some take-out lunch.

Yesterday, David "ran" in the 5th annual Greenbelt Wright Stuff 5K; he also "ran" the 1st race in 2003 (when there was packed snow and ice on the course). He improved his time from 4 years ago - never mind that the course was ice-free this time around. :P