Catching Up: Family Christmas 2014

My family celebrates Christmas the weekend after Thanksgiving. This has been the tradition for as long as I can remember. We go up to a hotel in Wisconsin and spend the weekend playing games, hanging out, eating lots of food and spending plenty of quality time together. It is a fun tradition that the whole family looks forward to all year long. This year was particularly special for us, since it was James' first time! 

We traveled back to Chicago from Denver for Thanksgiving and the weekend, and James was great on his first airplane trip! Since we wouldn't be in Chicago for actual Christmas, this was our Christmas celebration with my side of the family. Everyone loved seeing James, and for most of my extended family, it was their first time meeting him! He got plenty of attention all weekend and even though he won't remember it at all, we'll have those special memories of introducing him to some of our loved ones--people who loved James

before they met him!

My great-aunt with (almost) all of her great-grandchildren and James, her great-grandnephew!

Some of the gifts for the babies!

James with his great grand-aunt Peggy

Late night games with the cousins

Though it was definitely different this year, having a baby with us, it was so much fun to catch up with everyone and enjoy our family's company. We stayed up later than we should have, but for once a year, we can make some exceptions! There are over a dozen babies in the family now, so it's fun to be with the cousins and watch all the little ones grow up together! We can't wait for next year already!

Life Updated!

Yikes...someone has not kept up with her end of the blogging bargain. Life got in the way again, and here we are. No updates in weeks at least. I'm still convincing myself that I will make this blog more of a priority! Not only is this a wonderful way to share our lives (and to share cute pictures of James!) with our families, friends and mission partners, but it's also a scrapbook of our memories as a new family! I want to hold on to these memories while they're still fresh in mind!

We have been busy with a growing little guy on our hands! James will be 5 months old this week (so expect some pictures & fun facts in a few days!) and he is all over the place. Even though he can't crawl yet, he flips himself over as soon as he's put on the ground, and from there he scoots in a circle until he sees or can reach what he wants. It's so cute! But it's keeping us on our toes! Gone are the days where I could lay him on his play mat and take a quick shower, knowing he'd be entertained for five minutes and in exactly the same spot that I left him!

As Denver slowly flip flops from gorgeous weather to typical winter weather, we try to take advantage of the nice days when we can. Even though snow piles and slush prevent us from walking around our neighborhood like we usually do, we can still visit local outdoor malls and trails for fresh air and exercise. And when it's too cold or snowy to go outside, we love hibernating, playing with James and reading or catching up on Netflix! We have taken a couple of adventures this winter, but we're enjoying where we're at and so happy to watch our baby grow up right in front of us!

In addition to hopefully posting regularly with James' monthly updates, our family's adventures and all that God throws us in between, I have a couple of significant events from the past few months that I want to immortalize here. So seemingly outdated news like Christmas, SEEK and some others will be popping up just so that I have them all together for the future!

Thanks for being patient! And for loving us and our son so much!