christmas day - before dinner @ the ripple household.

Uncle Tom & Aunt Sue carried on the Christmas tradition of having everyone over to their house for presents, dinner, and games. It was so much fun. Evan was a real tropper having only had a one-hour nap and a late night the evening before.

Here is Evan signing for "more" pretzels.

christmas morning part 2.

We were back at my parents house for a wonderful brunch and the adventure of stocking hunting. Lots of candy (yea!) and hats for the guys. Oh, and Santa remembered how much I love Odwalla juice and totally hooked me up.

christmas morning.

All Evan wanted to do was carry around this box. I see a future in UPS for the boy.

I hope you all had a great, long holiday weekend. Evan got to spend time with all of his grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Christmas Eve we went to 4pm church, then over to Grandma and Grandpa Gordon's for dinner and presents. Evan got some great toys and clothes and we thank everyone very much for their generosity. It was fantastic to spend so much time with family and friends.

On the morning of Christmas Eve, we had to do some shoveling and thought it would be a good idea to take Evan sledding for the first time. He had a blast! Our goal of training him to like the snow and cold weather seems to be working. According to our timetable, by next year he should be shoveling while we are hopefully inside sipping cider.

I have about 10 posts to do in order to fully cover the holiday and our "mini" vacation...but that's going to take awhile. For now, enjoy the first video I took the time to upload. (I expect there will be many more in the near future). Evan is talking more and more these days, and here he says my favorite word, right after smashing the alarm clock.

Sunday night our neighbors had a huge Christmas party and it was excellent...the food, the company, and the play room in the basement for the kids. Eric and I feel so lucky to have such great neighbors. It's something that I've always hoped for when I thought of buying a house and having kids...when I was younger, there were always kids for me and my brother to play with in the neighborhood. I want the same thing for Evan (there are 7 kids under 5 in the three houses closest to us, so we're off to a good start!)

Saturday night we went to the men's basketball game vs. Coppin State (thanks Aunt Joni & Uncle Steve!). Evan was a little under the weather, but he sat really well for the first half and had fun watching Bucky. At halftime we met up with Janelle & Darrin and the kids...they all looked cute in their Badger gear!

Well, it was only a matter of time before Evan wore his snowsuit for the first time. Something tells me we'll have plenty of opportunities to wear it this winter. I've never really minded winter before, but this is getting ridiculous. It's freezing and won't stop snowing. Maybe California will become a reality sooner than later.

Have a great Holiday!