Christmas Bonus

On this last day of January, I figure it's my last chance to sneak in a few more cute pictures from December; plus one more fabulous bonus video! We did have fun with the Christmas season this year. And yes, Hayden did learn to refer to it as the "Christmas season". I'm not sure how that happened. She really took the concept of Santa Claus and Baby Jesus. I bought her a book of the Christmas Story that we read over and over and over. She frequently told us that her baby doll was named Jesus, even if it was a girl. She thought the nativity scene was pretty cool and liked when we let her play with it.


I also introduced her to Christmas cookies, which she loved. She was great at unwrapping Hershey Kisses for snowballs. She loved mixing things up and tasting them, though she wasn't too keen on helping roll "icky balls" (aka chocolate crinkle cookies)m but she was good at dipping them in powdered sugar. And she did a great job decorating sugar cookies for her teachers for Christmas. She didn't even try and eat the frosting or sprinkles - just the mini M&Ms.

Icky ball tasting mouth! Yummy!

Carefully decorating sugar cookies for teachers. See the finished products below!

Helping mommy unwrap kisses. Look at those fine motor skills!

She also had fun playing in the snow when it fell. One wet snow, she just plopped down and started digging with her shovel and pail, like it was sand. She didn't seem to care she was getting soaked!

And of course she loved the Christmas carols. You've already seen jingle bells in action and she learned many, many more: away in the manger and We three kings were favorites. And when I told her I really like God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen by Barenaked Ladies, she liked it too and we listened to it over and over in the car. And of course we sang happy birthday to Jesus a lot too. After Christmas, it was kind of sad to tell her that we weren't really going to sing those till next year. And I still hear her singing Away in the Manger from time to time. Here's "We wish you a Merry Christmas" during bathtime!

It was a great "Christmas Season" and we can't wait till next year!

Christmas in Columbus

Eliza was extra lucky for her first Christmas experience. She got not one, but TWO, Christmas celebrations: one in Durham and one in Columbus. Here she is surrounded by presents in Columbus at Grammy and Granddad's.
We had another long drive from NC to Ohio, that again the kids did well on, while the traffic did not cooperate. We got stuck in some accident traffic that added at least an hour and then had to battle a snowstorm on our arrival.

But we finally made it safe and sound. And the next day, when Jen, Aaron, Lucy, Will and Liesl arrived, the holiday festivities REALLY began. Each kid got to open one present on "Christmas eve" and Hayden's cookie set was a huge hit with everyone!
"Christmas morning" was quite chaotic with 5 kids and 6 adults all opening presents. Luckily the DeRousies have an age-based system that worked out pretty well. And there were some good presents, like games and puzzles, that were opened almost immediately to be played with.


Eliza got a new-to-her bumbo from Liesl that she tried out. She thought sitting in it with one sock really enhanced the experience. Hayden tried it out too when we tried to take pictures of their matching shirts. As you can tell from the photo, it was not the most successful photo session!

One of the most popular activities of the Columbus visit was story reading. Hayden would usually request a story from Grammy, and then everyone else would join in. Grammy may have had her hands full but at least she didn't get cold with all that body heat around!!!
After we celebrated Christmas, things got interesting. A 24 hour stomach bug attacked the house and managed to take down 4 of 6 adults and 2 of five children. There was LOTS of laundry being done. Hoping to avoid the germs (or perhaps spread them to the world), we went to a really cool science museum for the morning. The kids had a good time, especially in the section set up for little kids. Hayden and Liesl had a blast in the water play area.
Lucy did get a touch bored in that section but Uncle Jason used the time to teach her the slap game.

And even Grammy learned the art of babywearing! Good thing I had an extra carrier in the car! Eliza just napped through most of the experience. Three months might be a little young for science, even for one of my kids! :)

We did manage a group picture of the DeRousie clan but I didn't have my camera out for that. (Patt- can you send me a digital version so I can put it here?!!) We had a great time in Columbus and it was so wonderful to see so much family over the course of our trips. Hayden especially likes her robe and easel. Thank you, thank you!



We did make it back safely to State College without any traffic. After unloading all our gear, (which took awhile! the car was packed tight!), we are now settling into winter time. Jason and Hayden play with blocks almost every day. Jason builds intricate towers and Hayden knocks them down. And Eliza is just working on smiles and giggles and wiggles. Life is good. Thank you family for a wonderful holiday!

Carolina Christmas

Here's the tale of our holiday travels that you've been waiting for. Well, the first part anyway. I'm going to try not to be too long winded, cuz my bed is calling to me... but first to remind you of the Christmas spirit, here's our very favorite Santa baby!

We headed down to NC the Monday before Christmas- braving the route thru DC despite the gigantic snowfall that had fallen only a couple days earlier. Luckily the kids were complete troopers, even though DC was not a good choice. Apparently 20+ inches of snow is hard to get rid of; that means that multi-laned roads were down to only two lanes both because of snow and because of lines of dump trucks waiting to haul away the snow. The trip that used to take us 7.5 hrs pre-kids, took us a very long TEN hours because of snow issues and stops. Ugh. But we made it safe and sound and settled in for the holidays.

Most of the fun started on Christmas Eve when we woke up with a full house, Lacey, JT and Jay having arrived in the middle of the night. The kids got to decorate cookies for Santa and had a good time doing so. We were lucky there were any left for Santa!

I don't think Jay really got the idea of Santa and the cookies; Hayden seemed to have a little bit of a better idea, but not much. I helped her write a letter to Santa to leave out, and she even signed an H!
And don't forget that Christmas Eve was extra special cuz Eliza turned 3 months! Isn't she getting big?

Christmas morning was lots of fun with two kids old enough to enjoy the experience. Our family does stockings first and the kids had a great time opening their little gifts that Santa brought. Santa brought Jay a giant dump truck (to be seen in later pictures) while Hayden got some beads. Even Eliza was bright eyed for the occasion.
Gift giving was busy and chaotic. Hayden and Jay liked opening presents - even when they weren't their own presents. Here Hayden and Jay help Jason open one of his big heavy presents - wooden blocks! (Yes, Jason got blocks for Christmas. He plays with them almost every day!)

Eliza helped Poppop open his special present. Stamps with a picture of Hayden and Eliza on them!
Hayden and Jay generally had a great time together, doing all sorts of crazy stuff. Like snuggling with Lacey, stomping around in boots (Jay's were new for Christmas!), getting funny hairstyles in the bath and practicing yoga.


Besides just playing and hanging out at home, we made it a priority to go visit great-grandparents as well. After all, Eliza needed to meet the rest of the family! We got to see Grandma Ruth once, and Granma Jane twice. Hayden really liked visiting Granma Jane. There was lots of room to run around and play, she got ice cream and blueberries at lunch and they had this really cool train running around the Christmas tree in the common room. What could be better?!!

Granma Jane and her two great-granddaughters!

Ice cream!

When just a spoon won't do, use your hand too!

What kind of ice cream do you want Eliza?!

Chilling on one of the chairs in a common area -

so much room to run around and places to climb.

Mesmerized by the train.

Sanford Family! 4 generations!

and finally, I tried to get a video of the kids together as compared to when we all were together for Dad's birthday last year. There was nothing as fun as two kids running around with balloons, but I did catch them chasing the train around and around. You can see the kids running like crazy, Hayden bossing Jay and the adults sitting on the floor to do train maintenance if it jumped the track. It was a fun Christmas!