Christmas

Here is a quick Christmas recap from the Cook family! We decided to brave the trek home to Michigan-an 11 hour drive! It went quite smoothly this time. Ben kept himself busy in the way back with his Leapster system, coloring books and toys. Addie was an angel baby and somehow entertained herself or slept for the entire trip. Sophie was her usual self and needed to have constant interaction with the parent in the passenger seat. The last hour and a half was a little hairy, but otherwise we managed to keep her somewhat happy. Luckily, Smokey did not make this trip with us, but instead stayed at a kennel in Virginia. He's a good passenger, but rest stops get a little chaotic with three kids and a dog!

We arrived late on the 23rd, just in time for bed. The kids were so excited to be at Oma and Little Pa's house!

We brought our stockings from home and actually took a picture of all three kids with them on Christmas Eve (this proved to be much more challenging on Christmas Day).



Addie fully enjoyed the present opening. Of course she loved the paper, boxes and bows, but she seemed to enjoy her presents too! She still had to perform her usual tricks-'I love my doll, but I love to stand more!'



It was a very princess Christmas for Sophie. We are still finding glitter on everything! She received a princess crown, princess dress up clothes and princess shoes! My parents also gave her a box of Disney princess dolls. She loves them! She is very into matching her princess shoes to whichever doll she is currently playing with.

Here is Sophie admiring her box of princess shoes from her Uncle Steve. (And of course she is dressed as 'Mermaid' or Disney's Ariel.)

Ben had a great Christmas too. He had so much fun with his grandparents, Uncle Matt and Jackie, Uncle Steve and Maria, and all those seconds cousins and great aunts and uncles! Christmas is the one time of year where our kids can be with all of their extended family. It was so good for them to be so showered with love and attention!

Our journey home was a very looooong one. Poor Addie was sick (but slept most the way) and Sophie split her tongue as we were getting ready to get in the car. Needless to say we got a later start than planned. Sophie couldn't eat anything for most of the ride home, although we were lucky to find jello at one stop and a yogurt parfait at another. She was cranky, cranky, but understandably so. Now about 10 days later, her poor tongue has just about healed but will probably have a scar.

Our rough ride home was brightened when we walked in and the kids realized that Santa had visited Virginia too! He brought a new, bigger bike for Benny, an art easel for all of the kids, and a kitchen for Sophie. It's been way too cold for Ben to take his bike out, but Sophie loves her kitchen! She makes lots of treats for us, but her specialty is making coffee while talking on the phone......

I hope you all enjoyed the many blessings of Christmas this year!

A little bit of Christmas Part 1

I'm not much for News Years resolutions, but one thing is sure-I will be a better blogger in 2010!

We are still recovering from our trip home to Michigan, but for now, here are some highlights of our pre-Christmas festivities!

One of the great things about living in a major metro area, is there are so many things to do. We recently took advantage of this and headed into DC to see the National Christmas Tree, or as Ben now refers to it, The Obama Tree. It was a cold, cold night, on the eve of our huge storm (more on that later-we got 24 inches in 24 hours!), so we bundled ourselves and the kiddos up warmly and braved the elements.

Addie was one her usual 'best baby ever' self and barely made a peep the entire trip. She smiled so sweetly for the camera.



This next picture was taken at the end of our adventure, and is a bit out of order here. We finally let Sophie out of the stroller so she could get a better look at Baby Jesus. This was the highlight of the evening for her and a source of contention for the rest of us. She screamed most of the evening because she wanted her picture taken with Jesus. Since it was both freezing and crowed, we had initially refused to let her out of the stroller. Eventually, we had to pull her away, telling her that Jesus had to go to bed. She screamed all the way to the car, and most of the way home. (Note: this put a bit of a damper on the evening for the rest of us!) Still, she looks so sweet here.




Here is a rare family shot, you have to look closely for Addie in the corner!

This photo was taken early in the evening, and as you can see, Sophie is one unhappy camper! If you imagine, you can see her feet kicking the stroller in the photo. Quote: "I want my picture with Jesus, I want Baby Jesus!" Repeat about a thousand times...... Her love for Jesus may melt your heart, but anyone within earshot of her would disagree!

Here are Nick and Ben with The White House in the background.

And that's it for that adventure!

On a previous snowy Saturday, we braved the roads and took the kids to see Santa Claus. It was well worth the trip. Sophie and Ben both enjoyed Santa this year! The line wasn't too long, and had a Polar Express theme that the kids liked. When it was their turn to sit on Santa's lap, Sophie was a little hesitant at first, but then warmed up and told Santa she would like a princess doll. Ben was all business and asked Santa for some GI Joes. (Santa filled both requests!)

Decorating the Christmas tree was a lot of fun this year. Ben already has his favorite ornaments that he likes to hang, and Sophie is old enough to understand the concept. Well, she gets the general idea. As you can see from the picture below she chose to hang many ornaments on two very special branches. Over the next few days, she would move them around, but they always stayed very close to one another. We did have one ornament mishap this season-Sophie tried to eat a cinnamon ornament our friend Marie had made years back in Germany. Sophie came into the kitchen with a armless snowman and asked for her face to be washed. No harm done, and just a few days ago she pointed to some cinnamon ornaments (about 10 on one branch) and told me they were "gucky". Lesson learned!

More of our Christmas to come!