A Very Playmobil Christmas

Again, I find myself WAY behind on the blog. I normally wouldn't let such an important topic as Christmas go this long without a post. There are a variety of reasons (excuses) for that ranging from not having many photos, not successful rounding up pictures from others who did take pictures to just being tired and busy.

Better late than never I say. Here goes...

Christmas Eve we had a nice relaxing day around the house and decided (a little too late) to attend 4 pm Christmas Eve Mass. It was the children's service and we got there about 5-10 minutes early. We should have seen it coming from the lack of parking, but we opened the church doors to a packed vestibules. It was only packed because there was not a seat left in the house and no standing room left in the church. We hummed and hawed a bit but decided to leave even though we had met Bob's Dad there. He stayed, but with the two squirmy kids and a pregnant mommy standing in an overcrowded, overheated vestibules (narthex, if you want to be more specific) it didn't seem practical. Plus, I like to enjoy my Christmas service.

So we were all dressed up with nowhere to go. The next Mass was at 5:30 and we knew now that we needed to get there early. With an hour to blow, we decided that dinner was probably a good option. Where did we go? You guessed it...the golden arches. After a gourmet feast, we headed back to church to find...just as many cars?! Hmm, maybe the last service was going on still. And it was. We had to wait in the overstuffed lobby and pray to find a seat for the next mass. In the end, we had our pick of seats and it felt a little closer to a normal week's attendance. There were just a tons of visitors for the kid's service. While it would have been nice to attend that one, we would never have gotten McDonalds on Christmas Eve.

We came home from church started a fire and put the kids to bed and enjoyed a relaxing evening. I was pretty excited because I had a feeling that Santa was going to be bringing Reed just what he had been talking about for months...okay at least one month, prior to Christmas. The Playmobil Great Dragon Castle!
Christmas morning Reed was pretty pleased to open the gift, although he kept his cool. Actually, he was certain he was getting it. He told Santa that's what he wanted. He doesn't know yet that some years as much as he wants to Santa just can't come through. But this year, he DID!


We had a relaxing morning of eating cinnamon rolls, assembling the castle and knights, and having battles...red knights vs. green knights. Note: the red knights ALWAYS win. Reed is the red team, usually with Daddy. Cora and I are crushed in moments.

Loving his dragon castle

Loving to eat Christmas cookies

And playing in Reed's big box

After our fun morning at home, we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Mihelich's house for the family Christmas. Everything was lovely as usual. Here are a few pictures sent to me by Grandpa.

It always starts out calmly.
(There's my baby bump for those of you that may not have seen it yet.)

And it gets a little crazier with each newly opened present.

The look of a boy who loves his new presents.

The next morning, we took to the roads early to hit the Reed Farm by lunchtime. We had a smooth trip and made good time. The extended Reed Family Christmas is always a riot and we had a great time as always. Reed really enjoyed playing with his cousins. We didn't get a picture of the two Reeds together this year. Next time.

We got back to my parents' house that night and after putting the kids to bed, I promptly went to work planning a little getaway to St. Louis for Bob and me. My parents agreed to watch the kids for two days. Hooray! I went on Priceline.com and booked two nights at a 4-star downtown hotel for less than one night would have been booking traditionally. Double Hooray!

We had a great time. We did a lot of touristy sightseeing stuff and architectural dork stuff. We went up in the Arch, we walked around downtown going in a lot of buildings, we went to the Art Museum, we checked out Washington University campus and got a tour through Nathan's labs and Clean Room. We ate out with Nathan and Casey in the Central West End. We had a night out in historic downtown St. Charles, MO. We went to the new casino and Bob won some money at the craps table. We slept in (until 8am)! On the way home, we stopped by to visit my Grandma Maher. I can't thank my parents enough for probably the last trip and extended alone time that Bob and I probably will have until some time after the new baby comes.

Checking out an architectural icon--The Wainwright Building Designed by Adler and Sullivan, considered to be the precursor to the modern skyscraper. Got to love that gorgeous Sullivanesque detailing. I have no idea why I have such a befuddled look on my face besides the fact that we couldn't figure out how to get inside.

Friday morning we had the family Christmas with my siblings and parents. The cousins exchanged presents and the adults had a grab bag. I loved the theme this year of "As Seen On TV" products. I love my new Yoshi Knife. I feel like I can finally cut things like all those people on TV now.

Merry Christmas to you all and best wishes for this New Year. My biggest wish for this new year is to see the happy, healthy arrival of our lovely baby #3. Our 2012 is certain to be crazy but memorable.

Thanksgiving, Moving on to Christmas

Well, I haven't posted any pictures from our Thanksgiving adventures. I won't delay any longer, so I'll just write about it. Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, we had a beautiful meal with Bob's parents and Grandma. It was a relaxing day, which we all needed. Bob's work schedule this semester has been INSANE.

Friday morning we packed up and headed south for Greenville. Friday night was the lighting of the Bond County Courthouse in Greenville with Christmas lights. The photo below is taken from the WGEL website, but you can see Reed in the background with Granny and P-pa.

Our first Santa sighting of the season

The next day we headed out to Daniken Tree Farm, our annual tradition, to cut our own Christmas tree. If I ever find the camera, I will upload some photos of the event. It was fun and the weather was really pleasant. Some people wait for snow to go search for their tree. I, on the other hand, was perfectly content in the 60 degree weather.

Sunday was my mom's Thanksgiving feast, where they host both sides of the family, the Reeds and the Mahers. We had a great time catching up with the extended family and we surprised them all with the news that I am expecting our third child in May. Unfortunately, we couldn't stay too long, and Sunday afternoon made the long trek home.

Monday morning we dropped Bob at the airport for a computer software conference in Las Vegas. I didn't really look for the missing camera all week because I thought he packed it for his trip. Oops. He had a great, but busy week. He passed 4 certification exams and met a lot of people in the industry. My non-gambler even won some money the last evening he was there. We'll probably use it to help finance Christmas.

Reed's solitary request for Christmas costs about $150. The good thing is he only wants one thing, the bad thing is he only wants that one thing. Nothing else will do. There's been a big change from Christmas at age 2-1/2 and Christmas at age 3-1/2. There were no expectations last year. This year, he knows exactly how things are supposed to operate. If he is good, Santa will arrive on his sleigh on Christmas Eve to give him anything he wants. Let's hope the price tag on his gift requests don't continue to increase. I keep telling myself that he has no concept of money. Besides, Santa makes the gifts anyway, he doesn't buy them!

Anyway, we retrieved Bob from the airport on Friday and had a nice weekend that included celebrating Grandpa Mihelich's birthday. We had a great time for that on Saturday and we all tried to recover from the busy week prior by having a relaxing Sunday.

This week it's back to the grind. Bob has two more weeks until he finishes up the semester. December, as always, is shaping up to be a very busy month. I hope to have lots to post here. Now, I just need to locate that camera....

Christmas Day

We finished up our holiday celebration with a party at Bob's brother's house. The food was delicious and the company was great. We are truly blessed to have such great family.

The Mihelich Grandkids

Cora in typical form, tongue out and in push-up position

Here is a video that is pretty representative of how Cora has been moving lately. In the last two days she has started spending more time on her knees. Her mostly backward mobility is advancing a bit to inching forward too.

Christmas morning!

Christmas morning we woke up in our own beds. Reed came in to wake us up and we headed downstairs. Reed opened one present from Santa before we got dressed and ready for church. He kind of looks like he's still waking up.

Favorite present: Mini-skateboard

After church, we came home, leisurely opened gifts, and munched on cinnamon rolls. Reed even took an early nap before the Mihelich Christmas. A great morning!

Tool set

Capes for the Superhero

More capes for the Superhero
(Four actually, one for each family member)

As typical with many first Christmas experiences, Cora didn't really get too worked up. The wrapping paper was the highlight for her, but she is enjoying her new dolls, teether, and glow worm.

Bob and the kids

Christmas with my family

You can never celebrate too much so we had another Reed Christmas with my immediate family before we left Greenville. It was great to spend a relaxing morning at home with everyone. As always, the kids enjoying playing too. Oh and did I mention they opened presents too?

My parents and siblings

Aunt Andrea and Cora

Owen and Reed

Willa and Strawberry Shortcake

Family time!

Sunday, December 19th was the family Christmas extravaganza for us. We celebrated with both the Maher and Reed extended families. We met for lunch at my Aunt Rita's and then for dinner at the Reed Farm. We had a blast but it was a VERY long day!

The Maher Family

The Reed Great-Grandchildren

The cousins Reed M. and Reed T.
2 1/2 yrs. and almost 4 yrs. old

Christmas fun

After an exciting Christmas Eve playing with his cousins and decorating a gingerbread house, Reed slept in on Christmas morning. We got ready and went to Christmas morning mass and then came home and opened gifts. Reed enjoyed his presents from Santa but little did he know of all the presents to come in the following hours and days.

Christmas afternoon, we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's for more merry festivities. I think Reed enjoyed the excitement of opening gifts with his cousins, who couldn't have been more excited. The three boys ripped through their presents and got to playing as soon as they could.

The day after Christmas we drove through a big snow storm to get to the Reed Farm in Shipman. We made it safely and the treacherous drive was all worth it, because we had a great time. For now we don't have any photos, but if I get some I will come back and add them to the post. There were plenty of cousins to act silly with and Reed enjoyed it...maybe even too much.

Sunday we finally got to celebrate Christmas with my immediate family. Reed loves his cousins, and to my dismay, he also loves wrestling with his 5 year old cousin. This shouldn't surprise me because he also loves wrestling with his 4 and 6 year old cousins too. I guess I didn't think this stuff would happen until he was at least 2.

Granny and P-pa gave the kids cute name puzzles among other things. The kiddos got loads of goodies and when Reed got home yesterday he tried out each toy one at a time. The family was very generous and picked great gifts. He couldn't be happier!!!

Reed's First Christmas

We hope you all had a very Merry Christmas. The last two weeks have been quite hard with Bob's grandfather's passing and the flu/stomach virus that knocked us out pretty good. But finally with presents wrapped and house tidied, we were able to totally kick back last night and enjoy Christmas Eve at home in front of the fire. We had a great day with Bob's family today and tomorrow morning will head down south to visit my family.

I think Reed enjoyed Christmas this year, but he enjoys most things, as he is a very happy kid. His favorite things were climbing the presents, chewing on the presents, and tugging on the Christmas tree/decorations. Oh, and the gifts aren't too bad either. The video is a clip of Reed exploring the presents.