Christmas in Virginia

One of the perks of Nathan still being in school is that he still gets quite a bit of time off for holidays and such.  We were lucky enough to be able to fly out all together on December 16th and stay through the 31st!  That's 2 full weeks!  It was wonderful.  We were so bummed that Kristie and her family as well as Mitch weren't able to come, but we enjoyed the time we had with my parents, David, and Sydney.  It was a very relaxing trip and we all felt that it came to an end way too soon.  

The day we flew to VA Nate came down with a stomach bug.  Poor guy was just miserable all day at school, then came home and had to help me rush the family out the door, to the airport and on a 6 pm flight with 2 little kids.  He lost his dinner on the flight (the dinner that he had forced himself to choke down before we left hoping it would help). Big thanks to the flight attendant for providing him with a 'real' bag (aka much larger than the ones in your seat pocket)!  And I'm sorry to say that my frustration about having to be the only functioning adult on the trip led me to be slightly less than compassionate ;) .  On the bright side both of our kids did remarkably well and we made it through the 4 hour flight.  And no one else got sick (for the next week, anyways!).  

The next two weeks were full of all kinds of holiday festivities, an adequate amount of relaxation, and a little bit of barfing (tmi?).  Unfortunately Nate's suspected food poisoning made a reappearance a week later when Sawyer woke up on Christmas Eve and threw up all over the basement.  He was totally fine the next morning (thank goodness!).  I felt nauseous all Christmas Day morning and by the afternoon I was laying lifeless in my bed.  Tangent--I even had a super scary moment that night with what we (thanks to Nathan and our doctor friend, Isac) diagnosed as hypokalemia (low potassium).  My hands and arms totally cramped up and I was tingling all the way up to my face.  I literally could not move my hands or lift up my arms.  I was mentally prepared to go to the ER that point.  But Nathan gave me a banana, my mom had some potassium supplements, and with some other advice from Dr. Isac I was on the mend within about 30 minutes.  It wasn't the first time I'd had the stomach flu but it was the first time I'd had it while breastfeeding so my guess is that's what put me over the edge that time.  My electrolytes were majorly suffering.  Scary stuff.  Anyways, David had it at the same time as me and my poor dad got it next.  Somehow my mom dodged it until a week later after we were gone.  And Syd had already had it (she suspects) in Utah a few weeks before.  Not fun.  So that was our little 'upset' for the holidays.  But when I think about those 2 weeks, our bout with the flu seems like such a small part in comparison to all the fun we had and all the great memories we made!  I'll have to let the pictures tell the rest of the story. And there are PLENTY of them :)

Our first night there my dad's company had their annual Christmas party up in DC.  It was so much fun helping my mom get ready for it this year!  I brought out the dress that I wore to Andrea's wedding and she totally fit in it! (go mom!)  I even helped her curl her hair.  All I can say is...bow chicka wow wow. 

Sawyer helping my mom with some yardwork.

Our first lazy Sunday afternoon.  Sawyer loved snuggling up to Opi (and his IPAD :))  In fact, one of the last presents we opened up from my parents was our very own IPAD2!!!  We couldn't even believe it.  Totally unexpected and totally awesome!  We are so grateful for that gift.  It has been so nice to have!

We went to the mall for a little last minute Christmas shopping.  Omi spoiled Sawyer with a ride on the choo choo train.  He, of course, loved every minute.



Me and my mommy!  ...And this was the only one of these 2 where Violet didn't look like she was being tortured

Love getting kisses from my little man!

My Opi made this pyramid for my mom and it's been in our family forever.  Sawyer loved it and would constantly move all the figurines around.  I was so happy that he could experience a little bit of my Opi!

In keeping with tradition, we made a trip to Eileen's Bakery one day.  Love that place. (ps Nate has food in his mouth...and I think on his mouth)

CHRISTMAS EVE!

         

         Traditional German Christmas Eve Dinner (brats, sauerkraut, mashed potatoes...mmmmm...)

 Look at that tree!  Picture perfect...  And these presents wrapped by Syd?!?  Are you kidding me?!!!  Just beautiful.

     
         

Headed to church on Christmas Sunday (still holding it together before the miserable flu took control!)

My parents and Nate & I got Sawyer a balance bike this year.  We had heard a lot of great things about them and decided that it was the way to go.  He absolutely LOVES this thing.  He is still just as excited about it today as he was Christmas morning! And after just a short time he was picking up his feet and balancing like a pro!  I will try and post some videos in a later post.  But Sawyer did really well with Christmas this year.  He was super grateful for everything and so excited about each thing!  The bike was the only gift we got to in the few hours before heading to church.  He literally took all day to open his gifts cause he spent so much time with each one along the way!  

Thanks to my parents our kids were sufficiently spoiled :) (and so were we!).  Violet was pretty happy about her cute little gifts.  

Ok I know it's blurry but I couldn't not put up this picture of my dad modeling Sawyer's monster blanket!

Probably his other favorite (next to the bike)...a remote control monster truck!  Nice job, Omi!

Sawyer also got a little McDonald's cash register from my parents.  He loved playing 'restaurant' with it.  Even Vi came to eat!

Just chillin with Daddy :)...love this shot.  And Violet was pretty fond of the elmo airplane that lives at my parent's house.  She did well sitting up on that thing.

My mom took Sawyer to Funland one morning.  He loved it and still talks about the 'scary fast roller coaster ' there, haha.

My mom made a 'nature tree' with Sawyer for the birdies.  He would often look out the window watching to see if the birdies were coming to his tree.

Gotta love it

Omi was so good about taking Sawyer out to do fun things.  

Pure joy!

I honestly thought I was gonna break that thing!

On our last night together we went to the outdoor mall and watched the Christmas lights show.  It was really cool and Sawyer loved dancing to the music!

About to head out to he airport.  We all had such a great time...it was hard to leave.

And to wrap it up a very blurry shot of our family on the plane.  The flight back was SO much better.  No one was sick and the kids were so good again!  We were blessed :)

A few days before we went home we made a trip down to colonial Williamsburg.  I'm gonna save those pictures for another post!  Stay tuned :)