December 2012

December has come and gone very quickly as it always does and we enjoyed time with friends, family and even co-workers! As for everyone, we have been coming and going from parties, gatherings and work for what seems like the entire month. Let’s start with our Christmas celebrations…

We were in Indy this year for Christmas and my sister and her family was in town for the first weekend of this Christmas holiday. We decided to celebrate on Saturday, December 21st and open gifts in the morning. Everything was great and we received many nice gifts, including a zoo pass and kid kitchen accessories from Matt and Beth, a “tailgate tent” and kid kitchen accessories from the Vandervaarts, along with a Colts jersey, couch ottoman, and baby doll with accessories from my Mom. We hosted everyone over to our house on Christmas Eve to celebrate after mass.  It went great and everyone appeared to enjoy having plans after mass and being together. Mom came back on Christmas Day to watch Allison open presents and we also exchanged some gifts. Truthfully, due to all of the basement stuff Deb and I have done over the last year, we didn’t do gifts this year…so we wanted to keep Mom’s presents until Christmas so we would have something! Allison wasn't too interested in presents.  When asked she will say Santa says "Ho Ho Ho".  Santa brought her a new pair of jeans and pajamas and a wagon.  Our plans were to get together as a family that afternoon at the Wahmans, but the fell through once we learned my cousin had the stomach flu. Since we didn’t know who he had gotten it from, we decided to pack it in, have some leftovers and enjoy Christmas day with just the 3 of us.

The second weekend of the holiday we had Randy, Anna, Julie and Kyle come visit us. It was a great visit, and everyone was so excited for presents, once Allison went to bed the first night, we all opened all of our presents! We decided that Allison could have Saturday morning for herself! We received an iPad from Anna and Randy while Allison got an art easel and new table and chairs. Julie and Kyle gave us some new bedding for our guest room and gave Allison a shopping cart with some kid kitchen accessories. We were able to watch the WV bowl game, but they didn’t play very well. Deb organized some pull pork sandwiches and lasagna for the meals, which turned out great and it was nice to have so much room for our guests. It snowed about 8 inches the day after Christmas and another 4-5 once they arrived, so we took Allison out for her first snow experience. She wasn’t thrilled and kept saying “cold.” In true dad fashion, I went out and bought a sled and was running through the yard with her laying flat on the sled. She liked it for awhile, but I think I almost lost her a few times!

The house projects have slowed down. We were able to get the flooring completed for the workout area in the basement and we finally got cable installed after many headaches with Comcast that Deb was able to figure out. We had our contractor back here during Christmas week to change some light fixtures, install a ceiling fan in our bedroom, and do some trim work in the sunroom. Now that the basement was done, we hosted 2 parties this month. One was with our Purdue friends before we went out for our annual Christmas dinner and another was to watch a Colts game.

Allison had a doctor appointment this month and she was almost 34 inches long and 24 pounds. As all parents during Christmas break, we were able to spend lots of time together. She has started to do a little better job playing and doing some things on her own. It is fun to watch her change on nearly a weekly basis, with more words and actions than I guess I thought she would be doing at this age. Growing physically has been replaced with just changing personality and communication (she loves the Christmas tree). She is starting to be a little more independent, which can cause some stand-offs about many things. Everything from standing on the couch to eating her food can go from happy to upset very quickly. We have started to realize how much fun, but challenging 2013 will be with a new baby along with a toddler. I’d be missing something if I didn’t mention the incident at Sandy Hook Elementary. Everyone knows what happened, so I won’t go into it here, but we gave Allison a lot more hugs and kisses this month, realizing that any problems we have aren’t really problems.

A few more items from this month:
* We went to Emma Anderson Birthday Party at Snapperz. This in an indoor play area, and I was able to get Allison down a slide as you can see below.
* We hired a House-cleaning service to come once a month. We are hoping it works out and we are able to cut back on this chore.
* We attended Beth’s birthday party. It was well attended and she made some potato soup.
* We went to Debbie’s work Christmas party which was at the Hamersly’s.
* As mentioned, we went to our annual Purdue Friends Christmas Dinner, which was at Ocean Prime.
* I went to a Pacer Game with some co-workers vs. the Utah Jazz. I met Brad Stephens (Butler basketball coach) at the game.
* I went to the Colts vs. Texans season finale. We won an emotional game which marked the come-back of Coach Pagano. He was diagnosed with Leukemia early in the season and he is now in remission.

Allison went crazy for all the trees and the train at Sullivan Hardware store