Making Up For Lost Time...part IV

December

Colin is not at the point of understanding the idea of Christmas, but we still had a lot of fun with him this year. He did get to share in some of the excitement though. He loved the Christmas tree and was constantly playing with the few ornaments within his reach. There were also a few presents passed out with a little extra love from Colin...teeth marks! Anything he is able to pick up almost always ends up in his mouth. So Grandma Liz and Aunt Wendy were fortunate enough to have packages that were shown a little extra love by Colin! He also enjoyed the music. Will and I would try and have either the Christmas station or a CD playing while we were home on the weekends and Colin definitely is a fan of music. He actually watched the first part of High Society with me (the movie with Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Louie Armstrong). He was dancing during the opening scene while Louie was singing! Maybe I will have someone to watch my classic movies with me after all!!

It probably is not surprising but Colin was spoiled this Christmas by family. He has plenty of new cool toys that have been keeping him busy every since. While he was opening the gifts he was entertained by the wrapping for quite some time!

This year we had three Christmas dinners. The first one was the week before Christmas at Aunt Wendy & Uncle Eric's. We had a great time! Eric made a wonderful dinner and it was fun to watch Colin interact with his cousins, Aidan and Alexei.

On Christmas Eve, the three of us went to a church service at a local church we have attended a few times. The church, Community Church, is a very nice non-denominational church. We enjoy the services we have gone to. Colin really enjoyed the choir and band! He would perk up each time they played a song.

On Christmas Day we had our own little Christmas in the morning. Will was very stubborn about not letting me open any gifts on Christmas Eve, even though that is what we did in my family (he did let me open one)!

That afternoon Will's mom (Liz) and his younger brother Michael over. I made a Citrus Turkey Roast from a recipe book Liz had gotten me for my birthday. I have really enjoyed cooking lately and trying out new recipes. We had a wonderful time with them. Colin got some bath toys that should be a lot of fun and my sweetie got his Guitar Hero for Wii that he REALLY wanted! I also got Mario Kart for Wii which should be an exciting game for Will and I to play together.

The next day, Bill and Patty came over. This is Will's dad and Patty is one of the sweetest ladies. They are the people that we first stayed with when we moved here. Grandfather B and Patty had a great time playing with Colin. For this dinner, I chose to go with a German themed meal. Bill is German and that part of Will's heritage often gets overshadowed by the Scottish and Irish side. So, I thought we would focus on it this year. I made Old World Sauerbraten and Knoephla Soup! They were both delicious! I have to admit I was very proud of myself with this meal. It was a little more challenging and I had a lot of things going on at once.

So, to sum it up December was a wonderful month. We had a great holiday break. The only thing that would have made it better would have been to see my side of the family. I miss everyone very much and cannot wait to make a visit out to Oregon.