Christmas with Friends and Tolans

During the few days after Christmas, while we were still in Fort Wayne, we had the pleasure of visiting other friends and family. It was great to have "extra" time to see them all. Here are a few pictures with those we visited.

One stop was the Riecke household. Kristen got out the camera, and snapped a bunch of pictures for us. Thank you! This is actually one of the only (if not the only) family picture we took during the Christmas holiday.

Andy, Rachel and Christopher.






















Christopher with the Riecke boys (L to R: Aiden, Levi, Daniel and Christopher).

















Levi shares his toys with Christopher.

















Patrick and Christopher.

















We also stopped by to see my Uncle Ajit and Aunt Debbie and family. It was fun to catch up with them and see how all the kids had grown. Christopher had a great time with the kids.

(L to R) Sophie, Christine, and Christopher. Cousin Sophie shares her new toy she received for Christmas. Christopher enjoyed drawing on it.


















Cousin Josiah teaches Christopher how to play basketball.






















On Saturday, the 29th, we returned to Johnson City. Andy's brother, Tony, rode down with us as far as Knoxville, where we dropped him off on his farm. We had a great trip, and enjoyed the company. Christopher is a wonderful traveler - we're blessed. He slept about 1/2 of the time, and then just hung out and talked during the other 1/2. No real fussing. PTL!

Sunday, we went over to my parent's house to exchange gifts with my family. We started with a delicious supper of whole grain waffles, piled with strawberries, peaches, bananas, blackberries, cinnamon, honey and vanilla yogurt. Mmm mmm mmm...yum.

Christopher laughs as Babu lifts him high in the air.
















Andy was delighted to receive a cookie jar...full of cookies!
















Christopher shows Babu and Nana his new lion from Gigi.
















What is it, Christopher?
















A book!
















We received a beautiful, Kenyan wall-hanging from Daddy and Mama.
















Surprised? A little. And maybe a little excited...but just a little. =)























Nana reading one of his new books to Christopher.
















Well, I think that sums up Christmas vacation. As you can see, we had a wonderful time with many different people. We are so blessed with such wonderful friends and family.

Christmas at Mom's

We spent Christmas morning at Mom and Tony's house. All the Didyk and Sobota kids were there and we had an enjoyable time together, eating, opening presents and just hanging out.

Breakfast was delicious - rolls and fruit.
















Christopher laughs at a card Papa has that plays music when you open it.
















Ah...five minutes of not chasing the little boy all around the house. He loved being in the box, especially while Auntie Meg, Uncle Tony and Papa were entertaining him.

















"Buddies." Christopher found it hilarious to throw the ball in Auntie Meg's face.
















Sharing with Auntie Meg.

















Opening presents - he enjoyed the wrapping paper, the bows and the boxes much more than the toys for awhile. (Now he likes the toys.)
















Hmm...do I play with the blocks, the cups or my boat? Hmm?

















Wow! Auntie Jen is tall!























Christopher got a truck from Papa and Gramma.

















Sharing giggles with Gramma as they build towers and knock them down together.

















The clan: (L to R back row: Zach, Allison, Tony, Megan, Stephanie, Jenny, Andy; front row: Nichola, Tony, Joan, Christopher, Rachel) Crazy bunch.

Christmas at Dad's

Our Christmas vacation began on December 21, when we loaded up and left Johnson City at 4:30 pm. Our first stop was the NICU at St Joseph Hospital East in Lexington, KY. We took gifts to the families whose babies would be in the NICU over Christmas - muffins, candies, and gas cards. It was a blessing to talk with one of the mother's about her little boy. The staff also enjoyed seeing Christopher.

We then continued on to Fort Wayne, IN, arriving around 3 am. Long trip, but uneventful, and it was nice to have Christopher sleep almost the entire trip.

Friday through Tuesday, we spent the night over at Dad's place, venturing over to Mom's for a few hours each day for various family events.

The first event, was Christopher getting a bath at Grandpa's house. He was a little smelly from the trip, and Dad likes a clean, good-smelling baby! =) He had bought Christopher some soap, a bathmat and a warm blanket to sleep under. Christopher loved all of his baths (almost daily) that he received at Grandpa's house.






















Grandpa, or "Deda" (pronounced dee-daw) as Christopher chose to call him, and Christopher playing the piano.
















Wow! Deda let Christopher have the remote? Lucky!















On Sunday, Jen, Megan and Steph came over to Dad's house and we all decorated sugar cookies. It was great fun. Say "cookies"!















Jen made the dough and cut out all the shapes.





















Dad baked them all.





















And the rest of us decorated them.















Christmas Eve, we left Christopher with Dad and went with the Didyk girls to midnight mass at the cathedral downtown Fort Wayne. It was beautiful, and a wonderful way to begin Christmas.

Christmas day was spent at Mom's house (see Christmas at Mom's). Then that evening, we went back to Dad's with the girls, and ate the best homemade chicken soup you'll ever eat. It was delicious, and a wonderful evening meal after a big Christmas dinner.
















Then we opened presents. Christopher took all the bows off of everybody's windshield washer fluid from Dad. They remained one of his favorite toys for the rest of the week.















Christopher gets a toy from Deda.














Dad got shelves for his garage from Megan.















Christopher shares one of his toys with Auntie Jen.














Aunt Stephanie, sleeping from exhaustion after surgery on both knees three days prior.















After gifts, we all gathered around Dad's player piano and took turns pumping while everyone sang Christmas and polka songs. It was a wonderful evening together, thoroughly enjoyed by all.















Christopher snuggling Auntie Meg after a long, hard day of playing.





















Um, Christopher, I don't think a detonator is a very good toy for a baby, son.
















"Deda said it's okay, Mommy. Look, it goes down!" Yikes!
















Wednesday, Dad left to go visit his family in Ohio, and we moved over to Mom's. Thanks, Dad/Deda. We love you!!

Christopher's First Plane Ride

Christopher was able to go on his first plane ride this week. We found out that Andy's mom was sick in the hospital, and after three days she wasn't much better and they didn't know what was wrong with her. We decided to travel up and see her - and we flew since we knew we'd be driving up for Christmas the following week. (She's better now...still not sure what was wrong.) We decided at 2:30pm on Wednesday that we would leave ASAP. Within 15 min we were packed, had bought plane tickets, and called Rachel's mom to give us a ride to the airport. Talk about a whirlwind few minutes!!!!!

Here is Christopher's plane ride story:

After we arrived at the airport and checked in, we said goodbye to Mama/Nana and headed through security. Christopher was quite distraught, and kept reaching for Nana to give her another hug. As we walked away, he kept crying "My Nana. My Nana." It was pretty cute. Even though we had a tight connection, we arrive in Fort Wayne without incident with all our luggage. Yeah!

"Look, Mommy. What is that big truck doing? And look at the airplane!" (Looking out the window in the Johnson City airport as we waited for our plane that was delayed for 45 minutes.)






















One of Christopher's favorite things to do: ride escalators. In the mall, and now here in the airport, he just walks off one, turns, and gets on the other...over and over and over and over and over and...you get the point.

Supper on the airplane. We had just enough time to grab a bite to eat in the Detroit airport. Christopher enjoyed his french fries...his first and only for awhile!

Time to get off the airplane.

We went to the hospital and visited Gramma for awhile. Then Andy took Christopher to Grandpa's house to sleep, while Rachel spent the night with Mom in the hospital. She got out the next day, and we moved over to Mom's house for a couple nights to help out around the house and take care of Mom, who was still a little dizzy and weak. The last night before we flew, we slept at Dad's house so he could drive us to the airport.

Christopher and Auntie Meg playing with turtle magnets on Grandpa's fridge.

Sunday morning, we woke up to this.

It had snowed about 5 inches over night, and only two flights had left the airport before ours that was schedule to leave around noon. All the others, including the one to Cincinnati (where we were headed for a connecting flight to TN) had been canceled. We went to the airport anyway, and fortunately were able to make it home. Dad drove like James Bond to get us there - even up the wrong ramp to get on the highway because the one we needed was blocked by cars stuck in the snow. Thanks, Dad.

Christopher, trying to figure out what all that white stuff is and what they're spraying all over the airplanes ( they were deicing them).

Ah, fun. Except they decided the walkway wasn't safe, so we had to walk outside to all our planes....COLD!

We were back in TN for 4 days, before we turned around and headed back to IN by car for Christmas. It's been a crazy couple weeks, but we're having fun. More on Christmas later

Merry Christmas!