Christmas!!

OK, so let’s backtrack a little further to the Christmas holidays.  Unfortunately, they weren’t without their sadness as Paul passed away a couple of days after Christmas.  It’s weird to say that his death came as a shock since he was by no means in good health but it did always seem like he would pull out of things.  A week or so before Christmas he fell and bruised his hip (after suffering a heart attack the night before) so he was in the hospital for a little while and then transferred to a nursing home to get the strength back to stand and walk.  Unfortunately, he never did get strong enough to leave and passed away after just a few days there.  We were able to go up and see him a few times – he always was happy to see Sophie (I can still hear his voice when we’d come to the house “heyyyyy Sophie!)  She used to sit next to him in his chair and watch TV (she liked his big TV for sure!), play with his watch, and try to steal the remote.  She’d stand next to him and try and take his glasses off and he’d be happy as could be.  It was sad at the funeral because when we took her up to the casket she pointed to him – it’s too bad that she remembered him then but won’t as she gets older.  He was so good to her – to all of us really – we’ll miss him for sure.  The funeral was nice – it was the full military honors that he talked about wanting, and he got to be buried in his hometown of Washington Court House, OH.  Sophie did good at the funeral and showing and for the drives too (we left at 6:30 each way so she could sleep in the car).

We took Christmas pictures at home since she’ll be going in for 1 year pics so close to the holiday.  Enjoy!  (We were able to print one out to take up to Paul while he was in the nursing home – I think he enjoyed having it there.)

 

 

 

And then there was Christmas.  All kinds of firsts going on.  I think Sophie did pretty good for her first Christmas too (she can be a stinker sometimes, especially while teething, that’s why I keep pointing out when she does “well” because it honestly comes as a little bit of a surprise!)  It was a little tough on her because we were at Mendy’s and we didn’t open presents until almost 8 (which is bed time really).  We took her over there early and put her down for a nap there so that we could hang out for a bit and she woke up once people started arriving.  That part worked out pretty well.  The presents looked really good – Mendy had them lined up going down the spiral stairs so I thought it looked cool.  We all got good stuff at Christmas, Sophie especially.  Tom bought a snowmobile from Chris, so if we could just get some snow, we’d be all set!  It was a crazy year for weather.  It was cold all summer and then warm all November.  Now it’s January and cold, but it still isn’t snowing (around here, the rest of the state is doing better in the winter precipitation department).

I was a little surprised at how well Sophie did with the Christmas decorations.  The one thing that she had a hard time resisting at the end were the bows on the present.  She definitely wanted to keep taking them off!  She didn’t really mess with the tree – it sat up for a few days before I decorated it so maybe that helped.  However, the last few times we were at Ingrid’s and Sandy’s she kept going for the low-hanging bulbs.  All in all, the tree was pretty stress-free, I was worried that it was going to be a real headache.  I think that maybe next year we will start a tradition of getting a live tree.  We will have to wait a week or two later to put it up, but I think it will be nice.  Plus, I can use tinsel (I know Sandy likes the sound of that!)  We moved our kitchen table over by the bedroom to put the tree in front of the window this year but I don’t think we’ll do that again.  Just didn’t like the house arranged that way and you can’t really see the tree from outside anyway.  The real tree wouldn’t be too bad anyway because I like to take things down a couple of days after Christmas.  Tom thinks I’m being a bit of a Scrooge when I do that but I really just like to get things put away since the holiday is over.  So much about Christmas is the anticipation so once it is over, then I don’t think we really need the stuff up anymore…it just doesn’t provide the same joy after the fact.  But that could just be me…

On Christmas morning Mom and Mike came over here for breakfast and presents (Chris and Kurt had also stayed over the night before) and then we headed over to Sandy’s for dinner later.  Though she hasn’t had a chance to use it outside yet, Sophie is digging her new sled and loves to take rides throughout the house on it.  It’s useful if I need to get ready, I just put her in the sled and take her from room to room to do what I need to do.  As long as I don’t stay in one place too long, she’s happy!  It was a nice day – I almost take for granted already the joy of waking up in my own bed for Christmas (it was such a new feeling last year that I really savored it).  That reminds me, the one thing that I enjoyed last year but not this one is our fireplace.  For some reason we haven’t had a fire yet.  Maybe this weekend I’ll try to talk Tom into making one!

So before the Christmas Eve/Christmas we had Christmas with the Felskes and then an  even earlier Christmas with the Turner Clan.  Both were nice.  At the Felske’s Sophie started to color with a crayon.  I had tried to get her to do it before but she would just try and eat them but the other kids were coloring so she at least touched crayon to paper. We’ve tried it a few times at home since, with varying degrees of success.  Usually works better with a coloring book than blank paper.  They try to do crafty stuff at play group but she’s usually not interested.  Not sure how much is her age and how much is her personality.  I have a feeling a lot of it is personality.  She’s definitely her father’s daughter!