Andy got stuck in St. Louis and was finally able to get a flight into O'hare instead of Milwaukee so His brother Mark and nephew Dave drove the four hour round trip to get him. Unfortunately because his decision to go to chicago was last minute, his bags did not make it and he had to wait for them to be delivered... and that took three days. Lucky for Andy he wears the same size as his nephew Dave does.
Mark stayed with us the entire time that Andy was with us and Dave stayed for a few days off and on. We did the majority of our Christmas shopping while we were there due to the fact that we didn't have much room to carry anything in our luggage.
While we were there Alex learned to walk and is so good at it he can almost keep up with Jack. You have to be really quick if you want to go somewhere without him following you. He also broke another tooth in his mouth which made for some hard times sleeping at night sometimes. Mostly he was a little angel.
Jack and Alex made out like little thieves and got all kinds of toys from Santa and their Grandparents alike. Jack got a big truck set and his own set of tools so he can help his Daddy build things. He also got some books, an old fashioned riding horse, a toy rifle, and some building things called Kid K-nex. Alex got a little wooden bendy worm, a piano/xylaphone, a musical book, and a wooden pull train. They both got fleece blankets from their Aunt Meg.
I took about a billion pictures and can't wait to scrapbook them all.
We also got to go sledding. It was not only Jacks first time sledding but also mine. I must say that evn though I don't like the cold all that much that sledding was so much fun. We hated to see it all come to an end but days don't last forever.
Andy tried to leave on the 30th but his flight was cancelled and we got to spend an extra day with him. He left early on the 31st and was home by noon Pacific time. Jack, Ann and I had our own litle New year's celebration but only were able to make it untill the ball dropped in Time Square. Alex was out of the picture long before that.
We spent the last few days we were there just playing with all the new toys and we did celebrate Jack's birthday a little bit early so that Ann could join in the fun along with Andy's godparents, Sigrid and David, and a friend, Sharon. We had a little party for him and a cake and he got to blow out candles and open presents.
His most favorite thing was the Leappad from his Aunt Meg, which he called his laptop. He would fold it up and carry it around and he'd ask me "Mommy, where's my computer?". He also got some dinosaurs and some books and some more Kid K-nex and some big Legolike blocks. He was in toy heaven by the time it was all said and done. We had so much stuff for the boys that we ended up having to ship some home in a box.
Jack did not want to leave his Grandma's house, of course, if I was doted on like he was I wouldn't want to leave either. He was such a good boy almost the entire time he was there. This is the way I think Christamas should always be; spent with your friends and family. I'm so glad that we were able to give that to the boys.
